Class 
Book 




7A95 



/ 



TUPELO. 



BY 



REV. JOHN H. AUGHEY, A.M., 



AUTHOR OF "THE IRON FURNACE," "THE GRAMMATICAL GUIDE, 

"SPIRITUAL GEMS OF THE AGES," ETC., AND CHAPLAIN 

UNITED STATES ARMY. 



LINCOLN, NEB.: 

STATE JOURNAL COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

1888. 



.7 



Enteied according to act of Congress in the office of the librarian of 
Congress, a.d. 18S8, 
By REV. JOHN H. AUGHEY, A.M. 



TO 

MRS. MARY J. AUGHEY, 

Chariton, Lucas Co., Iowa, 

DR. J. W. and MRS. KATE A. FERGUSON, 
Congress, Wayne Co., Ohio, 

and in memory of 
DR. JOHN K. AUGHEY, 

who died at 
Seaton, Mercer Co., Illinois, May 19th, 1886,' 

MISS GERTRUDE E. AUGHEY, 

Chariton, Lucas Co., Iowa. 

MY BELOVED WIFE AND CHILDREN, 

This volume is affectionately inscribed, by 

THE AUTHOR 1 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

SECESSION. 

Secession Speech by Col. Drane— Secessionists' Rejoicing at the 
Election of Lincoln — Address by Capt. Love Opposing 
Secession — His Line of Thought and Excellent Argu- 
ments — A Secessionist Speaks — Deals in Vituperation, 
Sophistry, and Cursing — Sermon — Words of Warning — 
Arguments Against Secession — Its Results Predicted 
— Charity EnjoiDed pp 21 to 45 



CHAPTER II. 

Vigilance Committee and Court Martial — The Unique Sum- 
mons — Skull and Crossbones — Coffin, Grave, Gallows, and 
Victim — The Trial and its Result — The Midnight Attack 
by the Vigilantes — Their Incontinent Flight — Mr. John 
Mecklin's Visit — His Advice — Removal to Attala County 
near Kosciusko — Dr. Smith's Attempt at Assassination — 
The South Arming for the War — Dr. Hughes' Visit — Mur- 
der of Rev. James Pelan — Return to Tishomingo County 
— Events by the Way — Battle in Good Springs Glen — 
Murder of Payson and Murchison by the Vigilantes — Miss 
Silverthorn's Letter — Summons to Attend Court Martial — 
Escape to Rienzi — Return to Paden's Mills — The Battle 
near Booneville — The Arrest by Hill's Cavalry — Examin- 
ation by Col. Bradfute — Gen. Pfeiffer and Geu. Jordan 
Enter the Dungeon at Tupelo — Cruel Treatment of Pris- 
oners — Murder of Poole and Harbaugh — Songs of Incar- 
cerated Slaves pp. 46 to 116 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Visited by Col. Mark Lowry and Others — Miss Daisy Carson's 
Visit — Witherspoon's Escape — Pursued by Cavalry with 
Blood-hounds — Witherspoon and Denver Overtaken — Con- 
densed to Death — Death of their Captors — Mrs. Wither- 
spoon's Letter — Old Pilgarlic and his son Oscar — His Trial 
before Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard — Gen. Braxton Bragg 
Orders Prof. Yarbrough's Execution — He is Shot — Re- 
stored to Consciousness by his Friends — His final Escape 
— Death of the rebel Capt. Pender — Celebration of the 
Fourth of July in Prison — Escape of Aughey and Malone 
— Separate in the Encampment — Set out Alone — Concealed 
in the Chaparral — The Booming Cannon and Passing 
Soldiers — Soldiers' Conversation about the Escaped Pris- 
oners Overheard — Crosses an Affluent of the Tombigbee 
River — David Hough's Cabin — The Ee-arrest — Punning 
the Gauntlet amid Rebel Camps— Again at Gen. Jordan's 
Head-quarters — Examined and Shackled — Returned to 
Tupelo — Examined by the Rebel Generals — To be Shot in 
an Hour — Letter to My Wife — The Reprieve — Remanded 
to Prison — Reception by the Prisoners — Floor Spiked 
Down — Guards Increased i pp. 116 to 160 



CHAPTER IV. 

Benjamin Clarke's Story — Pursuit by Cavalry with Blood- 
hounds — Capture of the Bear — Death of Suediker and 
Rucker at the Bagnio in Fulton — Death of Downs — 
Clarke's Wife and Children — Arrive at Paden's Mills — 
The Search of the House, Mills, and Negro Quarters — The 
Minorcans — Louis Las Cassas Lornette — Col. Feullevert — 
His Interview with his Nephew Louia — The Rescue — 
Cavalry Battle at Paden's Mills — Interview with Col. 
Walter, the Judge Advocate — Charges Preferred — Bailie 
and Childress Shot— Second Visit of Col. H. W. Walter- 
Cruel Treatment by Col. Clare — French Officer's Visit — 
Personal Appearance of Gen. Bragg — Champe and Brax- 
ton — Murder of Chenault, Vedder, By n urn, and other 
Unionists — Hymns — Foreordination — Debate on, by Maple 
and Melvin — Hernion Bledsoe, The East Tennessee Union- 
ist — The Greenville Convention — The Loyal Address — 
Bledsoe's Arrest — Escape From Death by Fire — His 
Travels, Re-arrest, and Incarceration in Tupelo — Escape of 



CONTENTS. 1 

Bovard "Willis — Pursuit by Cavalry With Hounds — Nar- 
row Escape — Troyer Anderson's Remarkable Dream — 
Letter to My Wife — Obituary — The Prisoners' Petition to 
Abraham Lincoln and William H. Seward — Murder of 
Street and Maynard — Address to be made from the Gal- 
lows — Resolve to e-cape — Plan adopted — Proves successful 
— Under the Prison — Among the Guards — In the Forest — 
Meet a Negro — Perishing From Hunger and Thirst — Find 
Water — The Ethiopian Charley — The Unionist, Israel Nel- 
son — Col. Barry — Col. Barry and his Sou Volney Torn to 
Pieces by Blood-hounds — Traveling in a Circle, pp. 1(30 to 249 



CHAPTER V. 

Pursued by Bloodhounds — Death Imminent — Ascent of the 
Oak — Death Imminent — The Hounds Baflled — Jingo Dick 
— Under the Juniper. The Singing Birds — Homeward I 
Plod My Weary Way — Perishing From Hunger and 
Thirst— The Presentiment— Find Water, Bright Spark- 
ling Water — The Bear Hunt — Climb a Tree — The Con- 
scripts — Rebel Encampments — In at the Death — Blood- 
hounds — Meet the Videttes — The Fierce Dog — Find 
Friends — Mr. and Mrs. Chism— The Storm — Mr. Sanford 
—The Night in the Barn— The Midnight Ride— Reach 
Mr. John Downing's — Meet Many Unionists — Death of 
Newsom — Daughter of Gen. Nathaniel Green — Meet Rebels 
— Thrilling Adventure and Escape — Halted by Guerrillas 
— Fired at and Guide Wounded — Reach the Union Lines 
at Kienzi — Kind Reception — Serenade — Speech — Hosts of 
Friends — Cols. Bryner and Thrush — Meet Malone — Wife 
and Child — Gen. Jefferson C. Davis — His Kindness — Gort- 
ney's Tragic Death pp. 249 to 289 



CHAPTER VI. 

Melvin Estill's Letter — The Escape from Saltillo — Pursuit by 
Cavalry with Blood-hounds — Jasper Cain, Laverty Grier, 
and John Graham — Overtaken — Tragic Fate of Four- 
Unionists — Their Scalps Taken — Mrs. Cameron and 
Daughter Alverna — The Cavern — Fed by Slaves — Reach 
the Union Lines — Enlistment in Federal Service — Loyal 
Southern Women — Tampering with the Ballot Box — ■ 



CONTEXTS. 



Wholesale Frauds — Views of Grady and Clarke — Extract 
from President Cleveland's Inaugural — Bill to Promote 
Election Frauds — Visit to the Legislature in Columbia — 
News and Courier Speaks — Peon Slavery — Public School 
System of South Carolina — When Inaugurated — Synod of 
Atlantic — Moderator Moses Aaron Hopkins — Bowling 
Green, Ky. — Interview with Col. Geo. M. Edgar — Believes 
in the Right of Secessiou — Political Deliverances of the 
Southern General Assembly — The Question of Reunion of 
Northern and Southern Presbyterian Churches — A Con- 
summation to be Desired — Objections to Reunion — Causes 
of Delay — The Prospect of Reunion — Ecclesiastical Deliv- 
erance on Evolution — The "Open Letter" — Miscegena- 
tion — More Political Deliverances — Northern General As- 
sembly on Decoration Day — Purity of the Ballot Box 
must be Preserved or the Nation will Perish — Probable 
Solution of the Difficulty pp. 289 to 330 



CHAPTER VII. 

Bill Arp (Col. Smith) in Atlanta Constitution — His Arrogant 
and Presumptuous Demand — Gen. Benjamin H. Grierson's 
Report in Regard to the Southern Unionists — Pollard, the 
Southern Historian, on Conscription — James Blackburn's 
Atrocious Letter — Persecutions of North Carolina Union- 
ists — They Reach Philadelphia and are Hospitably Re- 
ceived — Col. Chandler's Report in Regard to Southern 
Prisons — Murder of Major Bradford — Gen. W. T. Sherman 
to Mayor of Atlanta, Ga. — Capt. Phillips' Statement in 
Regard to Unionists of North Alabama — Col. Fremantle's 
Views — Murder of Montgomery, a Texan Unionist — Duff's 
Regiment Sent to Quell Couuter Revolution of Unionists 
in Texas — Texas Unionist Confides His Sentiments — Gen. 
Bankhead Magruder's Abhorrence of the Puritans — Gen- 
eral Houston — Col. Chubb, who Hired a Colored Crew at 
Boston, and Coolly Sold them as Slaves at Galveston — Cru- 
elty to the Captured Crew of the Harriet Lane — Minden, 
La. — Gen. Jo. Johuston Wounded Ten Times — Gen. Van 
Dorn Shot by Dr. Peters — Burning of Unionists at Frank- 
lin, Tenn. — The Confederacy Calling upon the Negro for 
Help — Preamble to Florida Ordinance of Secession — Ad- 
dress by Stephen A. Douglas — Murder of Unionists in 
Kentucky Valley, Ala. — Terrible and Swift Retribution — 
Gideon Brevoort — His Faithful Service — His Death — His 



CONTEXTS. 9 

Monument — Prof. Franklin Brevoort — At Tensas, Miss. — 
Isaac Simpson — Brevoort and Simpson Eeach Cairo, 111. — 
White League — Murder of Judge Chisholrn and His Son 
and Heroic Daughter — Rev. James Pelan — Southern Hos- 
pitality — Rev. Mr. Bland, of Memphis Presbytery — Four 
Grave Elders — Comity among Physicians — A Laudable 
Custom coeval with the Medical Profession.... pp. 330 to 366 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Is Deception ever Justifiable ?— Gen. L. Q. C. Lamar's State- 
ment — Southern Heroines— Speech by Jefferson Davis at 
Holly Springs, Miss.— His Hatred of the North— Southern 
Slaves and Northern Mudsills — No Homogeneity between 
Cavaliers and Puritans— Pollard's Estimate of Jeff. Davis 
— Quotation from Pollard's Lost Cause — He Degrades La- 
bor, Denies its Dignity, and Eulogizes and Attempts to 
Justify Human Slavery — Poor Whites of the South — 
Causes of Their Poverty — Atavism — Heredity — Degrada- 
tion of Labor through Slavery — Lack of Educational and 
Religious Culture— Their Unfortunate Environment — De- 
spised by the Slave-holding Oligarchy pp. 366 to 383 



CHAPTER IX. 

Rev. L. B. Gaston's Essay — Educational Facilities of North 
and South Compared — The Educational System of Prussia 
Commended— Prediction Concerning Prussia — Free School 
System of the North — Urges the South to Adopt a Free 
School System — Result of His Article — Servile Insurrec- 
tions Dreaded— Judge Scroggs, of Holly Springs, Miss. — 
One Slave Murders Another — No Law to Punish the Hom- 
icide — The Murderer Whipped and Returned to His Mas- 
ter, Governor Matthews, of Salem— Tippah County, Miss. 
— Negro Testimony Not Valid— The Southern Barbecue- 
Sermon on the General Judgment — The Concourse, the 
Judge, the Witnesses, the Testimony, the Sentence — Dies 
Iras — American Slavery as it now Stands Revealed to the 
World (from a Scottish Magazine) — The Death of Slavery 
(by William Cullen Bryant) — Sermon Preceding Memorial 
Day (by Rev. J. H. Aughey, Pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church, Farmington, Fulton County, Illinois) — Purity of 



10 CONTESTS. 

the Ballot (Rev. T. C. Evans) — Memorial Day Poem — 
Poems: How Sleep the Brave? — Decoration Day — The 
Blue and the Gray — Answer to the Blue and the Gray — 
The Nation's Dead — Sleep, Comrades, Sleep — The Veter- 
an's Request (by Bayard Taylor) — The Soldier's Reprieve. 

pp. 383 to 461 



CHAPTER X. 

The United States in 1984 — The English or American Lan- 
guage (from Grammatical Guide, by Rev. J. H. Aughey, 
Pastor of the West Union Presbyterian Church, Dallas, 
Marshall County, West Virginia, 1876-1881)— The Com- 
mercial Language of the W T orld — Soon to be the Universal 
Language — Duty of Christian Ministers and People (by 
Miss Sarah Hosier, of Boston, Mass.) — The Burning of Co- 
lumbia, S. C-, in 1865 — Lemuel Lorimer — Memorial Day 
Address (by Rev. W. F. Bartholomew, of Chariton, Iowa) 
— Memorial Sermon (by Rev. W. F. Slocum, of Wooster, 
Ohio)— Soldier's Letter— Purity of the Ballot— Rev. W. 
J. Day's Opinion — The Traitor's Doom — Rev. Dr. Allen's 
Facts for the Church — The Southern Unionist — The Ku- 
Klux : the Story of Capt. Boone — The Mustering — The 
Indiana Election Cases — Sermon by a Clerical Ignoramus 
— Dark Hours, by Horace Greeley — Battle of Corinth — 
— Battle of Tupelo — Extract from Greeley's "American 
Conflict" — From a Soldier's Letter — The Glorious Fourth 
— Fraternal Relations — The Rum Traffic Doomed — John 
Wesley on Temperance — Unrestricted Immigration — Ex- 
tract from Rev. E. D McMaster, D.D.— The Christian 
Religion — The Octoroon — Massacre of Texan Unionists — 
The Purity of the Ballot — Prisoner's Hope — John Brown 
— Marching Through Georgia— Distinctive Principles — ■ 
Creed of all Orthodox Churches — The Law of Revivals — 
What the Churches Believe in regard to Temperance — 
Sermon by Rev. J. H. Aughey — Rev. J. C. Hogan on the 
Liquor Seller — Murder of Frank Journell — Faith Illus- 
trated — The Colored Philosopher — The Southern Presby- 
terian's Possible Dilemma — My Country — The Ship of 
State, by Longfellow — Is Another Civil War Imminent? 
— Reviews — Spiritual Gems of the Ages (by Rev. John H. 
Aughey, Pastor of the Churches of Congress, Chester, and 
Wayne, Wayne County, Ohio) pp. 462 to 606 



PEEFAOE. 



A celebrated author thus writes: "Posterity is 
under no obligations to a man who is not a parent, 
who has never planted a tree, built a house, nor 
written a book." Having fulfilled all the.se requisites 
to insure the remembrance of posterity, it remains to 
be seen whether the author's name shall escape oblivion. 

It may be that a few years will obliterate the name 
affixed to this Preface from the memory of man. 
This thought is the cause of no concern. I shall 
have accomplished my purpose if I can in some 
degree be humbly instrumental in serving my country 
and my generation, by promoting the well-being of 
my fcllowmen, and advancing the declarative glory 
of Almighty God. 

This work was written while suffering intensely 
from maladies induced by the rigors of the Iron 
Furnace of Secession, whose seven-fold heat is re- 
served for the loyal citizens of the South. Let this 
fact be a palliation for whatever imperfections the 
reader may meet in its perusal. 

There are many loyal men in the southern states, 
who to avoid martyrdom, conceal their opinions. 
They are to be pitied — not severely censured. All 
[11] 



12 PREFACE. 

those southern ministers and professors of religion 
who were eminent for piety, opposed secession till 
the states passed the secession ordinance. They then 
advocated reconstruction as long as it comported with 
their safety. They then, in the face of danger and 
death, became quiescent — not acquiescent, by any 
means — and they now " bide their time," in prayerful 
trust that God will, in His own good time, subvert 
rebellion, and overthrow anarchy, by a restoration of 
the supremacy of constitutional law. By these, and 
their name is legion, my book will be warmly ap- 
proved. My fellow-prisoners in the dungeon at 
Tupelo, who may have survived its horrors, and my 
fellow-sufferers in the Union cause throughout the 
South, will read in my narrative a transcript of their 
own suiferings. The loyal citizens of the whole 
country will be interested in learning the views of 
one who has been conversant with the rise and pro- 
gress of secession, from its incipiency to its culmina- 
tion in rebellion and treason. It will also doubtless 
be of general interest to learn something of the work- 
ings of the "peculiar institution," and the various 
phases which it assumes in different sections of the 
slave states. 

Compelled to leave Dixie in haste, I had no time 
to collect materials for my work. I was therefore 
under the necessity of writing without those aids 
which would have secured greater accuracy. I have 
done the best that I could under the circumstances ; 
and any errors that may have crept into my state- 



PREFACE. 13 

ments of facts, or reports of addresses, will be cheer- 
fully rectified as soon as ascertained. 

That I might not compromise the safety of my 
Union friends who rendered me assistance, and who 
are still within the rebel lines, I was compelled to 
omit their names, and for the same reason to describe 
rather indefinitely some localities, especially the por- 
tions of Ittawamba, Chickasaw, Pontotoc, Tippah, and 
Tishomingo counties, through which I traveled while 
escaping to the federal lines. This I hope to be able 
to correct in future editions. 

Narratives require a liberal use of the first personal 
pronoun, which I would have gladly avoided, had it 
been possible without tedious circumlocution, as its 
frequent repetition has the appearance of egotism. 

I return sincere thanks to my fellow-prisoners who 
imperiled their own lives to save mine, and also to 
those Mississippi Unionists who so generously aided 
a panting fugitive on his way from chains and death 
to life and liberty. 

May the Triune God bless our country, and pre- 
serve its integrity ! 

JOHN HILL AUGHEY. 

Female Seminary, Steubenvitte, Ohio. 



Above is the preface to The Iron Furnace. Since 
writing The Iron Furnace I have learned many 
things not known by me at the time that volume 
was written. I was not in a fit condition physically 



14 PREFACE. 

or mentally at that time to write anything as it should 
be written. It was uncertain whether I should sur- 
vive the maladies induced by the rigors of my im- 
prisonment. Dr. France, of Harlem Springs, O., 
whose patient I was, could not give me assurance of 
ultimate recovery. This volume is a fuller and more 
complete narrative of my own personal sufferings as 
a southern Unionist, both prior to and during my 
imprisonment and marvelous escapes from arrest, till 
I reached the Federal lines, as well as an account of 
the terrible cruelties to which my compatriots in the 
dungeon at Tupelo were subjected as a punishment of 
their patriotism. Although imperfect, The Iron 
Furnace, of which " Tupelo " is an enlarged and com- 
pleted sequel, has received many encomiums from 
distinguished men whose approval is the source of 
laudable pride. Some of them will be hereinafter 
recorded by the author. 

Mountain Top, Luzerne Co., Pa., May S, 188S. 



[By Rev, W. P. Breed, D.D., Philadelphia, Pa.] 
We commend The Iron Furnace to all. The 
author's personal narrative is one of the most thrill- 
ing and touching ever written. The arrest, the im- 
prisonment, the escape, the re-arrest, the ironing under 
the uplifted sword, the re-incarceration, the filthy 
dungeon, the loathsome food, the second escape, the 
pursuit by cavalry and blood-hounds, the famishing 
from thirst and hunger, and the final exodus from 



PREFACE. 15 

the iron furnace and reception under the good old flag 
form such a story that we envy not the heart of him 
who can read it without deep emotion. Mr. Aughey 
resided eleven years in the South, and his views in 
regard to the rise and progress of the secession move- 
ment till it culminated in treason and rebellion can4 
not fail to interest all. 



[By Horace Greeley, Editor of the New York 
Tribune'] 
Mr. Aughey was arrested as a traitor to the treason 
whereto he had never actively nor passively adhered 
and which he therefore could not betray. He was 
heavily manacled and thrust into a crowded, filthy 
prison, whence his companions were taken out day 
by day to be shot and their bodies thrown naked into 
a ditch, as a punishment of their patriotism. Mi". 
Aughey as a more influential Unionist was reserved 
for conspicuous hanging, but escaped before the ful- 
fillment of that amiable intention. Traveling in the 
opposite direction from that in which he would natur- 
ally be sought, wearing on his ankles the heavy iron 
fetters which he had not been enabled to remove, ho 
was obliged to evade the blood-hounds which are 
usually kept for the hunting of slaves, but are now 
employed for the tracking of white Unionists, taking 
care to leave none of his garments in prison, as from 
them the scent might be taken, traveling by night, 
and then very painfully because of the galling circlet 
of his ankles, living mainly on green corn eaten raw, 



16 PREFACE. 

since to raise a smoke would have been to advertise 
his presence to bitter and unrelenting foes, he finally 
evaded the rebel pickets and found refuge under the 
protecting folds of the flag of freedom. 



[By Rev. W, J. McCord, Wassaic, New York.] 
Much good will come from the circulation of Mr. 
Aughey's book, and I could wish that it might be 
read by everyone in our whole land. 



[By Hon. J. T. Headley.] 
I have read Mr. Aughey's book, The Iron Furnace, 
with intense interest, and find in it only another proof 
of how little the loud mouthed patriots of the North 
know what true fidelity to the Government means. 
It seems to me that somehow in the providence of 
God this war in its progress or termination must give 
the suffering Unionists of the South that lofty posi- 
tion relatively which they so richly deserve. 

[By Hon. B. F. Wade, Washington, D. C.] 
I have read Mr. Aughey's book, entitled, " The 
Iron Furnace." It shows what it costs to be a 
Unionist in the South, and strongly illustrates the 
condition of southern society. I hope it will receive, 
as it deserves, a wide circulation. 



[By Col. Bryner, of the 47th Illinois Infantry, 
Peoria, 111.] 

Mr. Aughey's book, " The Iron Furnace," proves 
the truth of the adage, that truth is stranger than fie- 



PREFACE. 17 

tion. His escape was one of the most remarkable on 
record. Heavily ironed, closely guarded in the midst 
of the great rebel army of more than one hundred 
thousand men, the day set apart for his execution but 
three days' distant, it required the almost miraculous 
interposition of Divine Providence to give success to 
his plaus for escape, to guide him through a hostile 
country swarming with foes eager in their search, 
stimulated by the incentive of a large reward and 
aided by the keen-scented blood-hound, till he had 
passed over a space of more than two hundred miles 
by the route he was compelled to travel, which inter- 
vened between his prison in Tupelo and the Union 
outpost of Rienzi. We have seen the manacles he 
wore ; we have looked upon the scars caused by the 
galling circlet of his ankles, the heavy iron fetters. 
We have read his thrilling record on the site of its 
occurrence — in the very building in which for years 
the author presided over the destinies of the Rienzi 
Female College. If you wish to read a true novel, a 
thrilling romance, a volume which will arouse and 
keep in trembling suspense all the faculties of your 
soul, send at once for " The Iron Furnace." 



[By Rev. Alfred Nevin, D.D. Philadelphia, Pa.] 
"The Iron Furnace " not a misnomer. Many have 
inquired in regard to " The Iron Furnace," whence 
the name? Would not the Fiery Furnace have been 
more appropriate ? In reply we would refer all inquir- 
ers to Dent. iv. 20; Jer. xi. 3-4; 1st Kings viii. 51; 

9 



18 PREFACE. 

from which it will be observed that " The Iron Fur- 
nace" is a most appropriate and significant title for the 
interesting work which bears it. More than three 
thousand copies of " The Iron Furnace " were ordered 
in advance of its publication, and many additional 
thousands have since been sold. It will always be 
important as a history of the times by one whose op- 
portunity for observation was excellent. He gives 
an inside view. It is embellished with a beautiful 
steel portrait of the author and engravings. 



[Rev. T. L. Cuyler, D. D., Brooklyn, L. I.] 
A much needed work. 

[By Rev. W. M. Engles, D.D., Philadelphia. Pa.] 
It tells a true and startling story of southern slav- 
ery and secession by a ministerial brother who is 
highly esteemed by those who know him, and whose 
veracity may be relied on with entire confidence. It 
is a thrilling narrative of what the writer saw and 
suffered, and contains a spirited and speaking likeness 
of the author. 



Rev. John H. Aughey, Commander of Post No. 14*5, 

Department of Illinois, G. A. R., Farmington, 

Fulton County, III.: 

Dear Comrade — Your comrades of the above 

named Post most earnestly request you to publish a 

new edition of your war history, which we have read 

with intense interest. 

Euros Kelsey, S. V. Com. 
E. A. Custer, Adjutant. 



PREFACE. 19 

[By Gen. U. S. Grant.] 
Mr. Aughey — I have read your book with interest. 
I feel much compassion for you and the great num- 
ber of southern loyalists who have suffered such ter- 
rible things at the hands of their disloyal fellow cit- 
izens. I thank you for the present of your book. 



[By Gen. John. A. Logan.] 
Mr. Aughey — I thank you for your book, "The 
Iron Furnace." I have only had time to glance 
through it. I know that I shall be greatly interested 
in reading it. The loyalists of the South deserve 
much credit for their adherence to the Union amid 
surrounding foes, an environment fraught with con- 
tinuous peril. Truly your friend, 

J. A. Logan. 



I have many other testimonials, but the above will 
suffice. Verbum sat sapienti. 

JOHN H. AUGHEY. 
Chariton, Iowa. 



CHAPTER I. 



SECESSION. 



At the breaking out of the present rebellion, I was 
engaged in the work of an Evangelist in the counties 
of Choctaw and Attala in Central Mississippi. My 
congregations were large, and my duties onerous. 
Being constantly employed in ministerial labors, I 
had no time to intermeddle with politics, leaving all 
such questions to statesmen, giving the complex 
issues of the day only sufficient attention to enable 
me to vote intelligently. Tims Mas I engaged when 
the great political campaign of 1860 commenced — a 
campaign conducted with greater virulence and as- 
perity than any I have ever witnessed. During my 
casual detention at a store, Colonel Drane arrived 
according to appointment, to address the people of 
Choctaw. He was a member of one of my congre- 
gations, and as he had long been a leading statesman 
in Mississippi, having for many years presided over 
the state senate, I expected to hear a speech of marked 
ability, unfolding the true issues before the people, 
with all the dignity, suavity, and earnestness of a 
gentleman and patriot; but I found his whole speech 
to be a tirade of abuse of the North, commingled 
with the bold avowal of treasonable sentiments. The 
Colonel thus addressed the people : 
[21] 



22 TUPELO. 

" My Fellow-Citizens — I appear before you to 
urge anew resistance against the encroachments and 
aggressions of the Yankees. If the Black Republi- 
cans carry their ticket, and Old Abe is elected, our 
right to carry our slaves into the territories will be 
denied us; and who dare say that he would be a base, 
craven submissionist, when our God-given and con- 
stitutional right to carry slavery into the common do- 
main is wickedly taken from the South. The 
Yankees cheated us out of Kansas by their infernal 
Emigrant Aid Societies. They cheated us out of 
California, which our blood and treasure purchased, 
for the South sent ten men to one that was sent by 
the North to the Mexican war, and thus we have no 
foothold on the Pacific coast; and even now we pay 
five dollars for the support of the general Government 
where the North pays one. We help to pay bounties 
to the Yankee fishermen in New England; indeed we 
are always paying, paying, paying, and yet the North 
is always crying, give, give, give. The South has 
made the North rich, and what thanks do we re- 
ceive? Our rights are trampled on, our slaves are 
spirited by thousands over their underground rail- 
road to Canada, our citizens are insulted while trav- 
eling in the North, and their servants are tampered 
with, and by false representations, and often by mob 
violence, forced from them. Douglas, knowing the 
power of Emigrant Aid Societies, proposes squatter 
sovereignty, with the positive certainty that the scum 
of Europe and the mudsills of Yankeedom can be 



TUPELO. 23 

shipped in, in numbers sufficient to control the destiny 
of the embryo state. Since the admission of Texas 
in 1845, there has not been a single foot of slave ter- 
ritory secured to the South, while the North has added 
to their list the extensive states of California, Minne- 
sota, and Oregon, and Kansas is as good as theirs; 
while, if Lincoln is elected, the Wilrnot proviso will 
be extended over all the common territories, debarring 
the South forever from her right to share the public 
domain. 

" The hypocrites of the North tell us that slavehold- 
ing is sinful. Well, suppose it is. Upon us and 
our children let the guilt of this sin rest; we are 
willing to bear it, and it is none of their business. 
We are a more moral people than they are. W ho 
originated Mormonism, Millerism, Spirit-rappings, 
Abolitionism, Free-lovism, and all other abominable 
isms which curse the world. The reply is, the North. 
Their puritanical fanaticism and hypocrisy is patent 
to all. Talk to us of the sin of slavery, when the 
only difference between us is that our slaves arc black 
and theirs white. They treat their white slaves, the 
Irish and Dutch, in a cruel manner, giving them 
during health just enough to purchase coarse clothing, 
and when they become sick they arc turned off to 
starve, as they do by hundreds every year. A female 
servant in the North must have a testimonial of good 
character before she will be employed; those with 
whom she is laboring will not give her this so long 
as they desire her services; she therefore cannot leave 



24 TUPELO. 

them, whatever may be her treatment, so that she is 
as much compelled to remain with her employer as 
the slave with his master. 

" Their servants hate them; our's love us. My nig- 
gers would fight for me and my family. They have 
been treated well, and they know it. And I don't 
treat my slaves any better than my neighbors. If 
ever there comes a war between the North and the 
South, let us do as Abraham did — arm our trained 
servants and go forth with them to battle. They 
hate the Yankees as intensely as we do, and nothing 
could please our slaves better than to fight them. Ah, 
the perfidious Yankees. I cordially hate a Yankee. 
We have all suffered much at their hands; they will 
not keep faith with us. Have they complied with 
the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law ? The 
thousands and ten of thousands of slaves aided in 
their escape to Canada, is a sufficient answer. We 
have lost millions and are losing millions every 
year, by the operation of the underground railroad. 
How deep the perfidy of a people, thus to violate 
every article of compromise we have made with 
them! The Yankees are an inferior race, descended 
from the old Puritan stock, who enacted the Blue 
Laws. They are desirous of compelling us to sub- 
mit to laws more iniquitous than ever were the Blue 
Laws. I have traveled in the North, and have seen 
the depth of their depravity. Now, my fellow-citi- 
zens, what shall we do to resist Northern aggression? 
Why simply this : If Lincoln or Douglas is elected 



TUPELO. 25 

(as to the Bell -Everett ticket, it stands no sort of 
chance), let us secede. This remedy will be effectual. 
I am in favor of no more compromises. Let us have 
Breckenridge, or immediate, complete, and eternal 
separation." 

The speaker then retired amid the cheers of his 
audience. 

Soon after this there came a day of rejoicing to 
many in Mississippi. The booming of cannon, the 
joyous greeting, the soul-stirring music, indicated 
that no ordinary intelligence had been received. The 
lightnings had brought the tidings that Abraham 
Lincoln was President-elect of the United States, and 
the South was wild with excitement. Those who 
had been long desirous of a pretext for secession now 
boldly advocated their sentiments, and joyfully hailed 
the election of Mr. Lincoln as affording that pretext. 
The conservative men were filled with gloom. They 
regarded the election of Mr. Lincoln by the majority 
of the people of the United States in a constitutional 
way as affording no cause for secession. Secession 
they regarded as fraught with all the evils of Pan- 
dora's box, and that war, famine, pestilence, and 
moral and physical desolation would follow in its 
train. A call was made by Governor Pettus for a 
convention to assemble early in January, at Jackson, 
to determine what course Mississippi should pursue, 
whether her policy should be submission or secession. 

Candidates, Union and Secession, were nominated 
for the convention in every county. The speeches of 



26 TUPELO. 

two whom I heard will serve as a specimen of the 
arguments used pro and con. Captain Love, of 
Choctaw, thus addressed the people : 

" My Fellow Citizens — I appear before you to 
advocate the Union — the union of the states under 
whose favoring auspices we have long prospered. 
No nation so great, so prosperous, so happy, or so 
much respected by earth's thousand kingdoms as the 
Great Republic, by which name the United States is 
known from the rivers to the ends of the earth. Our 
flag, the star-spangled banner, is respected on every sea, 
and affords protection to the citizens of every state, 
whether amid the pyramids of Egypt, the jungles of 
Asia, or the mighty cities of Europe. Our Repub- 
lican Constitution, framed by the wisdom of our 
Revolutionary fathers, is as free from imperfection 
as any document drawn up by uninspired men. 
God presided over the councils of that convention 
which framed our glorious Constitution. They 
asked wisdom from on high, and their prayers were 
answered. Free speech, a free press, and freedom to 
worship God as our conscience dictates, under our 
own vine and fig tree, none daring to molest or make 
us afraid, are some of the blessings which our Con- 
stitution guarantees; and these prerogatives which 
we enjoy are features which bless and distinguish us 
from the other nations of the earth. Freedom of 
speech is unknown amongst them ; among them a 
censorship of the press and a national church are 
established. 



TUPELO. 27 

"Our country by its physical features seems fitted 
for but one nation. What ceaseless troubles would 
be caused by having the source of our rivers in one 
country and the mouth in another. There are no 
natural boundaries to divide us into separate nations. 
We are all descended from the same common 
parentage, we all speak the same language, and we 
have really no conflicting interests, the statements of 
our opponents to the contrary notwithstanding. Our 
opponents advocate separate state secession. Would 
not Mississippi cut a sorry figure among the nations 
of the earth? With no harbor, she would be de- 
pendent on a foreign nation for an outlet. Custom- 
house duties would be ruinous, and the republic of 
Mississippi would find herself compelled to return to 
the Union. Mississippi, you remember, repudiated 
a large foreign debt some years ago ; if she became 
an independent nation, her creditors would influence 
their government to demand payment, which could 
not be refused by the weak, defenceless, navyless, 
armyless, moneyless, repudiating republic of Missis- 
sippi. To pay this debt, with the accumulated inter- 
est, would ruin the new republic, and bankruptcy 
would stare us in the face. 

" It is true, Abraham Lincoln is elected President 
of the United States. My plan is to wait till Mr. 
Lincoln does something unconstitutional. Then let 
the South unanimously seek redress in a constitu- 
tional manner. The conservatives of the North will 
join us. If no redress is made, let us present our 



28 TUPELO. 

ultimatum. If this, too, is rejected, I for one will not 
advocate submission ; and by the co-operation of all 
the slave states, we will, in the event of the perpetra- 
tion of wrong, and a refusal to redress our grievances, 
be much abler to secure our rights, or to defend them 
at the cannon's mouth and the point of the bayonet. 
The Supreme Court favors the South. In the Dred 
Scott case the Supreme Court decided that the negro 
was not a citizen, and that the slave was a chattel as 
we regard him. The majority of Congress on joint 
ballot is still with the South. Although wc have 
something to fear from the views of the President- 
elect and the Chicago platform, let us wait till some 
overt act, trespassing upon our rights, is committed 
and all redress denied ; then, and not till then, will 
I advocate extreme measures. 

"Let our opponents remember that secession and 
civil war are synonymous. Who ever heard of a 
government breaking to pieces without an arduous 
struggle for its preservation? I admit the right of 
revolution when a people's rights cannot otherwise be 
maintained, but deny the right of secession. We are 
told that it is a reserved right. The constitution 
declares that all rights not specified in it are reserved 
to the people of the respective states; but who ever 
heard of the right of total destruction of the govern- 
ment being a reserved right in any constitution? 
The fallacy is evident at a glance. Nine millions of 
people can afford to wait for some overt act. Let us 
not follow the precipitate course which the ultra politi- 



TUPELO. 29 

cians indicate. Let W. L. Yancey urge his treason- 
able policy of firing the Southern heart and precipita- 
ting a revolution, but let us follow no such wicked 
advice. Let us follow the things which make for 
peace. 

" We are often told that the North will not return 
fugitive slaves. Will secession remedy this grievance? 
Will secession give us any more slave territory? Xo 
free g-ovei'nment ever makes a treatv for the rendition 
of fugitive slaves — thus recognizing the rights of the 
citizens of a foreign nation to a species of property 
which it denies to its own citizens. Even little 
Mexico will not do it. Mexico and Canada re- 
turn no fugitives. In the event of secession the 
United States would return no fugitives, and our pe- 
culiar institution would, along our vast border, be- 
come very insecure ; we would hold our slaves by a 
very slight tenure. Instead of extending the great 
Southern institution it would be contracting daily. 
Our slaves would be held to service at their own 
option throughout the whole border, and our gulf 
states would soon become border states; and the 
great insecurity of this species of property would 
work, before twenty years, the extinction of slavery, 
and, in consequence, the ruin of the South. Are we 
prepared for such a result? Are we prepared for 
civil war? Are we prepared for all the evils attend- 
ant upon a fratricidal contest — for bloodshed, famine, 
and political and moral desolation? I reply, we are 
not; therefore let us look before we leap, and avoid- 
ing the heresy of secession — 



30 TUPELO. 

" ' Rather bear the ills we have, 
Than fly to others that we know not of.' " 

A secession speaker was introduced, and thus ad- 
dressed the people : 

" Ladies and Gentlemen — Fellow citizens, I am 
a secessionist out and out; voted for Jeff Davis for 
Governor in 1850, when the same issue was before 
the people; and I have always felt a grudge against 
the free state of Tishomingo for giving H. S. Foote, 
the Union candidate, a majority so great as to elect 
him, and thus retain the state in this accursed Union 
ten years longer. Who would be a craven-hearted, 
cowardly, villainous submissionist? Lincoln, the 
abominable, white-livered abolitionist, is President- 
elect of the United States ; shall he be permitted to 
take his seat on Southern soil? No, never! I will 
volunteer as one of thirty thousand to butcher the 
villain if ever he sets foot on slave territory. Seces- 
sion or submission ! What patriot would hesitate 
for a moment which to choose? No true son of 
Mississippi would brook the idea of submission to 
the rule of the baboon, Abe Lincoln — a fifth-rate law- 
yer, a broken-down hack of a politician, a fanatic, an 
abolitionist. I, for one, would prefer an hour of vir- 
tuous liberty to a whole eternity of bondage under 
Northern, Yankee, wooden-nutmeg rule. The halter 
is the only argument that should be used against the 
submissionists, and I predict that it will soon, very 
soon, be in force. 

"We have glorious news from Tallahatchie. Seven 



TUPELO. 31 

tory-submissionists were hanged there in one clay, and 
the so-called Union candidates, having the wholesome 
dread of hemp before their eyes, are not canvassing 
the county; therefore the heretical dogma of submis- 
sion, under any circumstances, disgraces not their 
county. Compromise ! let us have no such word in 
our vocabulary. Compromise with the Yankees, 
after the election of Lincoln, is treason against the 
South ; and still its syren voice is listened to by the 
demagogue submissionists. We should never have 
made any compromise, for in every case we surrendered 
rights for the sake of peace. No concession of the 
scared Yankees will now prevent secession. They 
now understand that the South is in earnest, and in 
their alarm they are proposing to yield us much ; but 
the die is cast, the Rubicon is crossed, and our deter- 
mination shall ever be, no union with the flat-headed, 
nigger-stealing, fanatical Yankees. 

" We are now threatened with internecine war. The 
Yankees are an inferior race; they are cowardly in 
the extreme. They are descended from the Puritan 
stock, who never bore rule in any nation. We, the 
descendants of the Cavaliers, are the Patricians, they, 
the Plebeians. The Cavaliers have always been the 
rulers, the Puritans the ruled. The dastardly 
Yankees will never fight us; but if they, in their 
presumption and audacity, venture to attack us, let 
the war come — I repeat it — let it come ! The confla- 
gration of their burning cities, the desolation of their 
country, and the slaughter of their inhabitants, will 



32 TUPELO. 

strike the nations of the earth dumb with astonish- 
ment, and serve as a warning to future ages, that the 
slaveholding Cavaliers of the sunny South are terri- 
ble in their vengeance. I am in favor of immediate, 
independent, and eternal separation from the vile 
Union which has so long oppressed us. After sepa- 
ration, I -am in favor of non-intercourse with the 
United States so long as time endures. We will 
raise the tariff, to the point of prohibition, on all 
Yankee manufactures, including wooden-nutmegs, 
wooden clocks, quack nostrums, etc. We will drive 
back to their own inhospitable clime every Yankee 
who dares to pollute our shores with his cloven feet. 
Go he must, and if necessary, with the blood-hounds 
on his track. The scum of Europe and mudsills of 
Yankeedom shall never be permitted to advance a step 
south of 36° 30'. South of that latitude is ours — 
westward to the Pacific. With my heart of hearts I 
hate a Yankee, and I will make my children swear 
eternal hatred to the whole Yankee race. A mongrel 
breed — Irish, Dutch, Puritans, Jews, free niggers, 
etc. — they scarce deserve the notice of the descendants 
of the Huguenots, the old Castilians, and the Cava- 
liers. Cursed be the day when the South consented 
to this iniquitous league — the Federal Union — which 
has long dimmed her nascent glory. 

" In battle, one southron is equivalent to ten north- 
ern hirelings; but I regard it a waste of time to speak 
of Yankees — they deserve not our attention. It 
matters not to us what they think of secession, and 



TUPELO. 33 

we would not trespass upon your time and patience, 
were it not for the tame, tory submissionists with 
which our country is cursed. A fearful retribution 
is in waiting for the whole crew, if the war which 
they predict, should come. Were the}' then to advo- 
cate the same views, I would not give a fourpence for 
their lives. We would hang them quicker than old 
Heath would hang a tory. Our Revolutionary fathers 
set us a good example in their dealings with the 
tories. They sent them to the shades infernal from 
the branches of the nearest tree. The North has 
sent teachers and preachers amongst us, who have 
insidiously infused the leaven of Abolitionism into 
the minds of their students and parishioners; and 
this submissionist policy is a lower development ot 
the doctrine of Wendell Phillips, Gerritt Smith, 
Horace Greeley, and others of that ilk. We have a 
genial clime, a soil of uncommon fertility. We have 
free institutions, freedom for the white man, bondage 
for the black man, as nature and nature's God de- 
signed. We have fair women and brave men. The 
lines have truly fallen to us in pleasant places. We 
have indeed a goodly heritage. The only evil we can 
complain of is our bondage to the Yankees through 
the Federal Union. Let us burst these shackles from 
our limbs, and we will be free indeed. 

"Letall who desire complete and eternal emancipa- 
tion from Yankee thraldom, come to the polls on the 
day of December, prepared not to vote the cow- 
ardly submissionist ticket, but to vote the secession 
3 



34 TUPELO. 

ticket; and their children, and their children's chil- 
dren, will owe them a debt of gratitude which they 
can never repay. The day of our separation and vin- 
dication of states' rights, will be the happiest day of 
our lives. Yankee domination will have ceased for- 
ever, and the haughty southron will spurn them from 
all association, both governmental and social. So 
mote it be ! " 

This address was received with great eclat. 

On the next Sabbath after this meeting, I preached 
in the Poplar Creek Presbyterian church, in Choctaw, 
now Montgomery county, from Romans xiii. 1 : 
"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. 
For there is no power but of God : the powers that 
be, are ordained of God." 

Previous to the sermon a prayer was oifered, of 
which the following is the conclusion : 

" Almighty God — we would present our country, 
the United States of America, before thee. When our 
political horizon is overcast with clouds and darkness, 
when the strong-hearted are becoming fearful for the 
permanence of our free institutions, and the prosperity, 
yea, the very existence of our great Republic, we pray 
thee, O God, when flesh and heart fail, when no 
human arm is able to save us from the fearful vortex 
of disunion and revolution, that thou wouldst interpose 
and save us. We confess our national sins, for we 
have, as a nation, sinned grievously. We have been 
highly favored, we have been greatly prospered, and 
have taken our place amongst the leading powers of 



TUPELO. 35 

the earth. A gospel-enlightened nation, our sins are 
therefore more heinous in thy sight. They are sins 
of deep ingratitude and presumption. We confess 
that drunkenness has abounded amongst all classes of 
our citizens. Rulers and ruled have been alike guilty ; 
and because of its wide spreading prevalence, and be- 
cause our legislators have enacted no sufficient laws 
for its suppression, it is a national sin. Profanity 
abounds amongst us; Sabbath-breaking is rife; and 
we have elevated unworthy men to high positions of 
honor and trust. We are not, as a people, free from 
the crime of tyranny and oppression. For these great 
and aggravated offences, we pray thee to give us re- 
pentance and godly sorrow, and then, O God, avert 
the threatened and imminent judgments which impend 
over our beloved country. Teach our senators wis- 
dom. Grant them that wisdom which is able to 
make them wise unto salvation ; and grant also that 
wisdom which is profitable to direct, so that they may 
steer the ship of state safely through the troubled 
waters which seem ready to engulf it on every side. 
Lord, hear us, and answer in mercy, for the sake of 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen and Amen ! " 
The following is a synopsis of my sermon: 
Israel had been greatly favored as a nation. No 
weapon formed against them prospered, so long as 
they loved and served the Lord their God. They 
were blessed in their basket and their store. They 
were set on high above all the nations of the earth. 
When all Israel assembled, 



36 TUPELO. 

ostensibly to make Rehoboam king, they were ripe 
tor rebellion. Jeroboam and other wicked men had fo- 
mented and cherished the spark of treason, till, on this 
occasion, it broke out into the flame of open rebellion. 
The severity of Solomon's rule was the pretext, but 
it was only a pretext, for during his reign the nation 
prospered, grew rich and powerful. Jeroboam 
wished a disruption of the kingdom, that he might 
bear rule; and although God permitted it as a pun- 
ishment of Israel's idolatry, yet he frowned upon 
the wicked men who were instrumental in bringing 
this great evil upon his chosen people. 

" The loyal division took the name of Judah, though 
composed of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. 
The revolted ten tribes took the name of their lead- 
ing tribe, Ephraim. Ephraim continued to wax 
weaker and weaker. Filled with envy against Judah, 
they often warred against that loyal kingdom, until 
they themselves Mere greatly reduced. At last, after 
various vicissitudes, the ten tribes were carried away, 
and scattered and lost. We often hear of the lost ten 
tribes. What became of them is a mystery. Their 
secession ended in their being blotted out of existence 
or lost amidst the heathen. God alone knows what 
did become of them. They resisted the powers that 
be — the ordinance of God — and received to themselves 
damnation and annihilation. 

"As God dealt with Israel, so will he deal with us. 
If we are exalted by righteousness, we will prosper; 
if we, as the tan tribes, resist the ordinance of God, 



TUPELO. 37 

we will perish. At this time many are advocating the 
course of the ten tribes. Secession is a word of frequent 
occurrence. It is openly advocated by many Nul- 
lification and rebellion, secession and treason, are 
convertible terms, and no good citizen will mention 
them with approval. Secession is resisting the pow- 
ers that be, and therefore it is a violation of God's 
command. Where do we obtain the right of seces- 
sion? Clearly not from the word of God, which en- 
joins obedience to all that are in authority, to whom 
we must be subject, not only for wrath, but also for 
conscience's sake. 

" There is no provision made in the Constitution of 
the United States for secession. The wisest states- 
men, who made politics their study, regarded seces- 
sion as a political heresy, dangerous in its tendencies, 
and destructive of all government in its practical ap- 
plication. Mississippi, purchased from France with 
United States gold, fostered by the nurturing care, 
and made prosperous by the wise administration 
of the general government, proposes to secede. 
Her political status would then be anomalous. 
Would her territory revert to France? Does she 
propose to refund the purchase money? Would she 
become a territory under the jurisdiction of the 
United States Congress? 

" Henry Clay, the great statesman, Daniel Webster, 
the expounder of the constitution, General Jackson, 
George Washington, and a mighty host, whose names 
would fill a volume, regarded secession as treason. 



38 TUPELO. 

One of our smallest states, which swarmed with tories 
in the Revolution, whose descendants still live, invented 
the doctrine of nullification, the first treasonable step, 
which soon culminated in the advocacy of secession. 
Why should we secede, and thus destroy the best, 
the freest, and most prosperous government on the 
face of the earth, the government which our patriot 
fathers fought and bled to secure? What has Mis- 
sissippi lost by the Union? I have resided seven 
years in this state, and have an extensive personal 
acquaintance, and yet I know not a single individual 
who has lost a slave through northern influence. 
I have, it is true, known of some ten slaves who 
have run away, and have not been found. They 
may have been aided in their escape to Canada by 
northern and southern citizens, for there are many 
in the South who have given aid and comfort to the 
fugitive; but the probability is that they perished in 
the swamps, or were destroyed by the blood-hounds. 
"The complaint is made that the North regards 
slavery as a moral, social, and political evil, and that 
many of them denounce, in no measured terms, both 
slavery and slaveholders. To be thus denounced is 
regarded as a great grievance. Secession would not 
remedy this evil. In order to cure it effectually, we 
must seize and gag all who thus denounce our pecu- 
liar institution. We must also muzzle their press. 
As this is impracticable, it would be well to come to 
this conclusion : If we are verily guilty of the evils 
charged upon us, let us set about rectifying those 



TUPELO. 39 

evils; if not, the denunciations of slanderers should 
not affect us so deeply. If our northern brethren 
are honest in their convictions of the sin of slavery, 
as no doubt many of them are, let us listen to their 
arguments without the dire hostility so frequently 
manifested. They take the position that slavery is 
opposed to the inalienable rights of the human race; 
that it originated in piracy and robbery ; that mani- 
fold cruelties and barbarities are inflicted upon the 
defenceless slaves; that they are debarred from intel- 
lectual culture by state laws, which send to the pen- 
itentiary those who are guilty of instructing them ; 
that they are put upon the block and sold, parent and 
child, husband and wife being separated, so that they 
never again see each other's face in the flesh ; that 
the law of chastity cannot be observed, ;i- there are 
no laws punishing rape on the person of a female 
slave; that when they escape from the threatened 
cat-o J nine-tails, or overseer's whip, they are hunted 
down by blood-hounds and bloodier men ; that often 
they are half starved and half clad, and are furnished 
with mere hovels to live in ; that they are often mur- 
dered by cruel overseers, who whip them to death, or 
overtask them until disease is induced which results 
in death ; that masters practically ignore the mar- 
riage relation among slaves, inasmuch as they fre- 
quently * separate husband and wife, by sale or re- 
moval; that they discourage the formation of that 
relation, preferring that the offspring of their female 
slaves should be illegitimate, from the mistaken notion 



40 TUPELO. 

that it would be more numerous. They charge, also, 
that slavery induces in the masters, pride, arrogance, 
tyranny, laziness, profligacy, and every form of vice. 

" The South takes the position that if slavery is sin- 
ful, the North is not responsible for that sin ; that it 
is a state institution, and that to interfere with slav- 
ery in the states in any way, even by censure, is a 
violation of the rights of the states. The language of 
our politicians is, upon us and our children rest the 
evil ! We are willing to take the responsibility and 
to risk the penalty ! You will find evil and misery 
enough in the North to excite your philanthropy and 
employ your beneficence. You have purchased our 
cotton ; you have used our sugar ; you have eaten 
our rice ; you have smoked and chewed our tobacco 
— all of which are the products of slave labor. You 
have grown rich by traffic in these articles ; you have 
monopolized the carrying trade and borne our slave- 
produced products to your shores. Your northern 
ships, manned by northern men, brought from Africa 
the greater part of the slaves which came to our con- 
tinent, and they are still smuggling them in. When, 
finding slavery unprofitable, the northern states 
passed laws for gradual emancipation, but few ob- 
tained their freedom, the majority of them being 
shipped South and sold, so that but few, compara- 
tively, were manumitted. If the slave trade and 
slavery are great sins, the North is particeps criminis, 
and has been from the beginning. 

" These bitter accusations are hurled back and forth 



TUPELO. 41 

through the newspapers, and in Congress crimination 
and recrimination occur every day of the session. 
Instead of endeavoring to calm the troubled waters, 
politicians are striving to render them turbid and 
boisterous. Sectional bitterness and animosity pre- 
vail to a fearful extent, but secession is not the proper 
remedy. To cure one evil by perpetrating a greater 
renders a double cure necessary. In order to cure a 
disease, the cause should be known, that we may treat 
it intelligently and apply a proper,remedy. Having 
observed, during the last eleven years, that sectional 
strife and bitterness were increasing with fearful ra- 
pidity, I have endeavored to stem the torrent, so far 
as it was possible for individual effort to do so. I 
deem it the imperative duty of all patriots, of all 
Christians, to throw oil upon the troubled waters, 
and thus save the ship of state from wreck among 
the vertiginous billows. 

"Most of our politicians are demagogues. They 
care not for the people, so that they accomplish their 
own selfish and ambitious schemes. Give them 
power, give them money, and they are satisfied. 
Deprive them ot these, and they are ready to sacri- 
fice the best interests of the nation to secure them. 
They excite sectional animosity and party strife, and 
are willing to kindle the flames of civil war to ac- 
complish their unhallowed purposes. They tell us 
that there is a conflict of interest between the free and 
slave states, and endeavor to precipitate a revolution, 
that they may be leaders and obtain positions of trust 



42 TUPELO. 

and profit in the new government which they hope 
to establish. The people would be dupes indeed to 
abet these wicked demagogues in their nefarious de- 
signs. Let us not break God's command, by resist- 
ing the ordinance of God — the powers that be. I 
am not discussing the right of revolution, which I 
deem a sacred right. When human rights are in- 
vaded, when life is endangered, when liberty is taken 
away, when we are not left free to pursue our own 
happiness in our own chosen way — so far as we do 
not trespass upon the rights of others — we have a 
right, and it becomes our imperative duty to resist 
to the bitter end the tyranny which would deprive 
us and our children of our inalienable rights. Our 
lives are secure; we have freedom to worship God. 
Our liberty is sacred ; we may pursue happiness to 
our hearts' content. We do not even charge upon 
t he general Government that it has infringed these 
rights. Whose life has been endangered, or who has 
lost his liberty by the action of the Government? If 
that man lives, in all this fair domain of ours, he has 
a right to complain. But neither you nor I have 
ever heard of or seen the individual who has thus 
suffered. We have therefore clearly no right of 
revolution. 

"Treason is no light offence. God, who rules the 
nations, and who has established governments, will 
punish severely those who attempt to overthrow them. 
Damnation is stated to be the punishment which 
those who resist the powers that be, will suffer. Who 



TUPELO. 4-> 

wishes to endure it ? I hope none of my charge will 
incur this penalty by the perpetration of treason. 
You yourselves can bear me witness that I have not 
heretofore introduced political issues into the pulpit, 
but at this time I could not acquit my conscience 
were I not to warn you against the great sin some of 
you, I fear, are ready to commit. 

" Were I to discuss the policy of a high or low tariff, 
or descant upon the various merits attached to one or 
another form of banking, I should be justly obnox- 
ious to censure. Politics and religion, however, are 
not always separate. When the political issue is 
made, shall we, or shall we not, grant license to sell 
intoxicating liquors as a beverage? the minister's 
duty is plain; he must urge his people to use their 
influence against granting any such license. The 
minister must enforce every moral and religious 
obligation, and point out the path of truth and duty, 
even though the principles he advocates are by states- 
men introduced into the arena of political strife, and 
made issues by the great parties of the day. I see 
the sword coming, and would be derelict in duty not 
to give you faithful warning. I must reveal the 
whole counsel of God. I have a message from God 
unto you, which I must deliver, whether you will 
hear, or whether you will forbear. If the sword 
come, and you perish, I shall then be guiltless of your 
blood. As to the great question at issue, my honest 
conviction is (and I think I have the Spirit of God,) 
that you should with your whole heart, and soul, and 



44 TUPELO. 

< 

mind, and strength, oppose secession. You should 
talk against it, you should write against it, you should 
vote against it, and, if need be, you should fight 
against it. 

"I have now declared what I believe to be your 
high duty in this emergency. Do not destroy the 
government which has so long protected you, and 
which has never in a single instance oppressed you. 
Pull not down the fair fabric which our patriot fathers 
reared at vast expense of blood and treasure. Do not, 
like the blind Samson, pull down the pillars of our 
glorious edifice, and cause death, desolation, and ruin. 
Perish the hand that would thus destroy the source 
of all our political prosperity and happiness. Let 
the parricide who attempts it receive the just retribu- 
tion which a loyal people demand, even his execution 
on a gallows high as Hainan's. Let us also set about 
rectifying the causes which threaten the overthrow of 
our government. As we are proud, let us pray for 
the grace of humility. As a state, and as individuals, 
we too lightly regard its most solemn obligations; 
let us, therefore, pray for the grace of repentance and 
godly sorrow, and hereafter in this respect sin no 
more. As many transgressions have been committed 
by us, let the time past of our lives suffice us to have 
wrought the will of the flesh, and now let us break 
off our sins by righteousness, and our transgressions 
by turning unto the Lord, and he will avert his 
threatened judgments, and save us from dissolution, 
anarchy, and desolation. 



TUPELO. 45 

" If our souls are filled with hatred against the people 
of any section of our common country, let us ask from 
the Great Giver the grace of charity, which suffereth 
long and is kind, which envieth not, which vaunteth 
not itself, is not puffed up, docs not behave itself un- 
seemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, 
thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but re- 
joiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, and 
which never faileth ; then shall we be in a suitable 
frame for an amicable adjustment of every difficulty; 
oil will soon be thrown upon the troubled waters, and 
peace, harmony, and prosperity would ever attend 
us; and our children, and our children's children 
will rejoice in the possession of a beneficent and stable 
government, securing to them all the natural and 
inalienable rights of man " 



4G TUPELO. 



CHAPTER II. 

VIGILANCE COMMITTEE AND COURT-MARTIAL. 

Soon after this sermon was preached, the election 
was held. Approaching the polls, I asked for a Union 
ticket, and was informed that none had been printed, 
and that it would be advisable to vote the secession 
ticket. I thought otherwise, and going to a desk, 
wrote out a Union ticket, and voted it amidst the 
frowns, murmurs, and threats of the judges and by- 
standers, and, as the result proved, I had the honor 
of depositing the only vote in favor of the Union 
which was polled in that precinct'. I knew of many 
who were in favor of the Union, who were intimi- 
dated by threats, and by the odium attending it, from 
voting at all. A majority of the secession candidates 
were elected. The convention assembled, and on the 
9th of January, 1861, Mississippi had the unenviable 
reputation of being the first to follow her twin sister, 
South Carolina, into the maelstrom of secession and 
treason. Being the only states in which the slaves 
were more numerous than the whites, it became them 
to lead the van in the slave-holders' rebellion. Be- 
fore the 4th of March, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, 
and Texas had followed in the wake, and were en- 
gulfed in the whirlpool of secession. 

It was now dangerous to utter a word in favor of 



TUPELO. 47 

the Union. Many suspected of Union sentiments 
were lynched. An old gentleman in Winston county 
was arrested for an act committed twenty years be- 
fore, which was construed as a proof of his abolition 
proclivities. The old gentleman had several daugh- 
ters, and his mother-in-law had given him a negro 
girl. Observing that his daughters were becoming 
lazy, and were imposing all the labor upon the slave, 
he sent her back to the donor, with a statement of 
the cause for returning her. This was now the 
ground of his arrest, but escaping from their clutches, 
a precipitate flight alone saved his life. 

Self-constituted vigilance committees sprang up all 
over the country, and a reign of terror began ; all 
who had been Union men, and who had not given 
in their adhesion to the new order of things by some 
public proclamation, were supposed to be disaffected. 
The so-called Confederate States, the new power, 
organized for the avowed purpose of extending and 
perpetuating African slavery, was now in full blast. 
These soi-disant vigilance committees professed to 
carry out the will of Jeff. Davis. All who were con- 
sidered disaffected were regarded as being tinctured 
with abolitionism. My opposition to the disruption 
of the Union being notorious, I was summoned to 
appear before one of these august tribunals to answer 
the charge of being an abolitionist and a Unionist. 
My wife was very much alarmed, knowing that were 
I found guilty of the charge, there was no hope for 
mercy. 



48 TUPELO. 

On the evening before the session of the vigilance 
committee, I walked out in the gloaming for medita- 
tion and prayer. When a short distance from my 
residence, I encountered an old colored man who be- 
longed to a planter named Major F. M. Henderson. 
The old man, who was known as Uncle Simon Peter, 
embraced every opportunity of hearing me preach. 
He approached me with his hat under his arm, and 
in a very deferential manner. Said he, "Master, I is 
in great trouble." 

"What troubles you, Uncle Peter?" 

" Master, I brings a note to you, and I'se 'feared 
it bodes no good to you. Master and Gus Mecklin 
and some more folks what I didn't know fixed it up 
las' night, and de way dey talked dey's ready to 'sas- 
sinate you." 

" Give me the note, Uncle Peter." 

"Here it am." 

The paper was unique. A skull and cross-bones 
illuminated one corner, a coffin and newly-made grave 
were rudely drawn in another corner, a gallows was 
conspicuous, a victim whose hands were bound be- 
hind his back and a cap drawn over his face, stood 
upon the trap ready for execution. In bold letters 
was written, "Such be the doom of all traitors." 
Within was the following citation : 

" Parson John H. Aughey, your treasonable pro- 
clivities are known. You have been reported to us 
as one of the disaffected whose presence is a standing 
menace to the perpetuity and prosperity of our newly- 



TUPELO. 49 

organized government — the Confederate States of 
America. Your name heads the proscribed list. Yon 
are ordered to appear on to-morrow afternoon at 2 
o'clock before our vigilance committee, in W. H. 
Simpson's carriage shop, to answer to the charges of 
treason and abolitionism. 

"By Order of the Vigilantes. 

"K.K.K.& K.G.C." 

Flight was now impossible, and I deemed it the 
safest plan to appear before the committee. I found 
it to consist of twelve persons, five of whom I knew,, 
viz., Rev. John Locke, Armstrong, Cartledge, Simp- 
son, and Wilbanks. Parson Locke, the chief speaker, 
or rather the inquisitor-general, was a Methodist 
minister, though he had fallen into disrepute among 
his brethren, and was engaged in a tedious strife with 
the church which he left in Holmes county. The 
parson was a real Nimrod. He boasted that in five 
months he had killed forty-eight raccoons, two hun- 
dred squirrels, and ten deer; he had followed the 
blood-hounds, and assisted in the capture of twelve 
runaway negroes. W. H. Simpson was a ruling elder 
in my church. Wilbanks was a clever sort of old 
gentleman, who had little to say in the matter. Ann- 
strong was a monocular Hardshell-Baptist. Cart- 
ledge was an illiterate, conceited individual. The 
vest were a motley crew, not one of whom, 1 feel con- 
fident, knew a letter in the alphabet. The committee 
assembled in an old carriage shop. Parson Locke 
acted as chairman, and conducted the trial, as follow.- : 
4 



50 TUPELO. 

" Paraon Aughey, you have been reported to us as 
holding abolition sentiments, and as being disloyal to 
the Confederate States." 

" Who reported rue, and where are your wit- 
nesses?" 

"Any one has a right to report, and it is optional 
whether he confronts the accused or not. The pro- 
ceedings of vigilance committees are somewhat in- 
formal." 

" Proceed, then, with the trial, in your own way." 

" We propose to ask you a few questions, and in 
your answers you may defend yourself, or admit 
your guilt. In the first place, did you ever say that 
you did not believe that God ordained the institution 
of slavery ? " 

"I believe that God did not ordain the institution 
of slavery." 

" Did not God command the Israelites to buy 
slaves from the Canaanitish nations, and to hold them 
as their property for ever?" 

"The Canaanites had filled their cup of iniquity 
to overflowing, and God commanded the Israelites to 
exterminate them ; this, in violation of God's com- 
mand, they failed to do. God afterwards permitted 
the Hebrews to reduce them to a state of servitude ; 
but the punishment visited upon those seven wicked 
nations by the command of God, does not justify war 
or the slave trade." 

" Did you say that you were opposed to the slavery 
which existed in the time of Christ?" 



TUPELO. 51 

"I did, because the system of slavery prevailing 
in Christ's day was cruel in the extreme ; it conferred 
the power of life and death upon the master, and was 
attended with innumerable evils. The slave had the 
same complexion as his master; and by changing his 
servile garb for the citizen dress, he could not be re- 
cognized as a slave. You yourself profess to be 
opposed to white slavery. " 

"Did you state that you believed Paul, when he 
sent Onesimus back to Philemon, had no idea that 
he would be regarded as a slave, and treated as such 
after his return?" 

"I did. My proof is in Philemon, verses 15 and 
1 6, where the apostle asks that Onesimus be received, 
not as a servant, but as a brother beloved ? " 

" Did you tell Mr. Creath that you knew some 
negroes who were better, in every respect, than some 
white men ? " 

" I said that I knew some negroes who were better 
classical scholars than any white men I had as yet 
met in Choctaw county, and that I had known 
some who were pre-eminent for virtue and holiness. 
As to natural rights, I made no comparison ; nor did 
I say anything about superiority or inferiority of 
race. I also stated my belief in the unity of the 
races." 

" Have you any abolition works in your library, 
and a poem in your scrap-book, entitled 'The Fugi- 
tive Slave,' with this couplet as a refrain, 

'The hounds are bnying on my track; 
Christian, will you send me back ? " 



52 TUPELO. 

" I have not Mrs. Stowe's nor Helper's work ; they 
are contraband in this region, and I could not get 
them if I wished. I have many works in my library 
containing sentiments adverse to the institution of 
slavery. All the works in common use amongst us, 
on law, physic, and divinity, all the text-books in 
our schools — in a word, all the works on every sub- 
ject read and studied by us, were, almost without 
exception, written by men opposed to the peculiar 
institution. I am not alone in this matter." 

"Parson, I saw Cowper's works in your library, 
and Cowper says : 

' I would not have a slave to fan me when I sleep, 
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
That sinews bought and sold have ever earned.' " 

"You have Wesley's writings, and Wesley says 
that ' Human slavery is the sum of all villainy.' You 
have a work which has this couplet : 

' Two deep, dark stains, mar all our country's bliss : 
Foul slavery one, and one, loathed drunkenness.' 

You have the work of an English writer of high 
repute, who says, ' Forty years ago, some in England 
doubted whether slavery were a sin, and regarded 
adultery as a venial offence ; but behold the progress 
of truth ! Who now doubts that he who enslaves 
his fellow-man is guilty of a fearful crime, and that 
he who violates the seventh commandment is a great 
sinner in the sight of God?' " 

" You are known to be an adept in phonography, 
and you are reported to be a correspondent of an 
abolition phonographic journal." 



TUPELO. 53 

" I understand the science of phonography, and I 
am a correspondent of a phonographic journal, but 
the journal eschews politics." 

Another member of the committee then interro- 
gated me: 

"Parson Aughey, what is funnyography ?" 

"Phonography, sir, is a system of writing by 
means of a philosophic alphabet, composed of the 
simplest geometrical signs, in which one mark is used 
to represent one and invariably the same sound." 

"Kin you talk funnyography? and where does 
them folks live what talks it?" 

"Yes, sir, I converse fluently in phonography, and 
those who speak the language live in Columbia." 

"In the Deestrict?" 

"No, sir, in the poetical Columbia." 

I was next interrogated by another member of the 
committee. 

"Parson Aughey, is phonography a abolition 
fixin'?" 

"No, sir; phonography, abstractly considered, lias 
no political complexion; it may be used to promote 
either side of any question, sacred or profane, mental, 
moral, physical, or political." 

"Well, you ought to write and talk plain English, 
what common folks can understand, or we'll have to 
say of you, what Agrippa said of Paul, ' Much learn- 
ing hath made thee mad.' Suppose you was to preach 
in phonography, who'd understand it? — who'd know 
what was piped or harped? I'll bet high some 



54 TUPELO. 

Yankee invented it to spread his abolition notions 
nnderhandedly. I, for one, would be in favor of 
makin' the parson promise to write and talk no more 
in phonography. I'll bet phonography is agin slav- 
ery, tho' I never hearn tell of it before. I'm agin 
all secret societies. I'm agin the Odd-fellers, Free- 
masons, Sons of Temperance, Good Templars, and 
phonography. I want to know what's writ and 
what's talked. Yon can't throw dust in my eyes. 
Phonography, from what I've found out about it to- 
day, is agin the Confederate States, and we ought to 
be agin it." 

Parson Locke then resumed : 

"I must stop this digression. Parson Aughey, are 
you in favor of the South?" 

"I am in favor of the South, and have always en- 
deavored to promote the best interests of the South. 
However, I never deemed it for the best interests of 
the South to secede. I talked against secession, and 
voted against secession, because I thought that the 
best interests of the South would be put in jeopardy 
by the secession of the Southern States. I was honest 
in my convictions, and acted accordingly. Could the 
sacrifice of my life have stayed the swelling tide of 
secession, it would gladly have been made." 

"It is said that you have never prayed for the 
Southern Confederacy." 

"I have prayed for the whole world, though it is 
true that I have never named the Confederate States 
in prayer." 



TUPELO. 55 

"Where and by whom were you educated?" 

"In my childhood I attended the free schools in 
New York state and also in Steuben vi lie, O. I was 
a student of Grove Academy, in Steubenville, O., 
1844-5. Rev. J. W. Scott, D.D., was the principal. 
I was a student of Richmond College, Richmond, 
Jefferson Co., Ohio, three years. Rev. J. R. \Y. 
Sloane, D.D., was the president. Prior to this 1 
studied classics two years with Rev. John Knox, of 
Springfield, Jefferson Co., O. lam an alumnus of 
Franklin College, New Athens, Harrison Co., O., 
was graduated during the presidency of Rev. A . 1 >. 
Clark, D.D." 

"Did you ever attend Oberlin College, O.?" -ail 
the presiding officer. 

" I never had that honor, sir." . 

" What were the views of your educators on the 
slavery question?" 

"They all believed that human slavery was a 
moral, social, and political evil — a cancer on the 
body politic, to be eradicated as soon as possible by 
mild means, or by heroic treatment as the exigencies 
of the case might demand, in order to the preserva- 
tion of the national life. Since I came South 1 have 
taught in Winchester, Ky., Raton Rouge, La., .Mem- 
phis, Tenn., Molly Springs and Rienzi, Miss., and 
have been acting pastor of the churches of Waterford 
and Spring Creek, in the Presbytery of Chickasaw, 
near Holly Springs, Miss.; and of Bethany Church 
in North Mississippi Presbytery." 



. r )6 TUPELO. 

"Are you a Mason or Odd Fellow?" said Parson 
Locke. 

" I object to that question/' said Mr. Armstrong, 
who belonged to a church that refused to fellowship 
any members of secret societies. 

"I will not press the question," said the parson. 
"You may retire." 

As I wended my way home I saw a large con- 
course in front of the shop, in the garb or rather 
guise of hunters. They had guns upon their shoul- 
ders and pistols in their belts. I recognized the 
majority of them as Unionists who had come, doubt- 
less, to see that no harm befell me. There were a 
few virulent secessionists in the post-office, who, as 
I passed through it to the street, looked fiercely at 
me, and with horrid blasphemy gave their views as 
to what fate should befall traitors, tories, submission- 
ists, and unionists. These remarks were intended 
for my ears. 

After I had retired, Parson Locke said : " Mr. 
Cartledge, what is your opinion ? Is Parson Aughey 
guilty or not guilty of the crimes charged against 
him in the indictment?" 

"Guilty, sir, guilty. I node that afore I come 
here to-day. I node it after I hearn him preach 
that sermon agin secession, an' when I seed him rite 
out an' vote the Union ticket I didont need no more 
evidence of his a being guilty of all that is charged 
agin him, an' more too. Put me down in favor of 
hangin'." 



TUPELO. 57 

''Very well said, Mr. Cartledge. An honest, un- 
equivocal, straightforward expression of your con- 
victions. General Bolivar, let us hear from you." 

Bolivar was a foundling. The gentleman at 
whose gate the babe was abandoned gave him to the 
colored women to raise. He was a great admirer of 
the South American patriot and liberator, General 
Simon Bolivar, so he named the waif, Simon Bolivar. 
The gentleman lived in Boyle Co., Ky., on Rock 
Creek, near Danville. Bolivar, when grown, mar- 
ried a poor white girl, and they lived in a cave on 
the banks of that stream. He joined his fortunes 
to a class of poverty-stricken people who were known 
as rock angels, from their habitation amid the clefts 
of the rocks. They procured a precarious livelihood 
by hunting and fishing, often eking out their meagre 
supply of life's necessaries by predatory excursions 
to the sheep-folds and hen-roosts of the neighboring 
gentry. Bolivar came to Mississippi in the employ 
of a man who brought a drove of mules for sale, and 
liking the climate he returned and brought his family. 

Bolivar, when addressed, started suddenly as from 
an apparent revery, and ejecting a quantity of ambier 
from his filthy mouth, replied : " I agrees with my 
neighbor Cartledge. Better men nor him hez been 
hung in this county lately, an' it has done good. I 
can't see no reason why heshouldenthang, an' that's 
the way I votes." 

"Major Wilbanks, how do you vote in regard to 
the guilt or innocence of the prisoner?" 



58 TUPELO. 

"You -wish my candid opinion?" 

"Yes, we do." 

" Well, then, I will give it for what it is worth. 
I am in favor of a free country, a free press, free 
speech — free men, a free ballot and fair count." 

" You might have added free niggers and com- 
pleted your free catalogue," said Parson Locke. 
"Bro. Simpson, please give us your opinion and 
advice." 

" Parson, I am halting between two opinions. I 
do not approve the views of my pastor, but he has 
never committed any overt act of treason. We can 
afford to wait for that. It may be possible — should 
the sentiments of those who have spoken prevail — 
that civil war would be inaugurated in our midst. 
The assembled crowd in front of this building is 
ominous of evil. I have looked out upon them, and 
I know that many of the men out there have been 
far more outspoken in the expression of opinions 
adverse to the Southern Confederacy than him whom 
Ave have had before us to-day, and they are armed to 
the teeth." 

Parson Locke turned pale, and said if Bro. Simp- 
son thought there was any immediate danger of ex- 
citing a riot, he would adjourn the session till some 
time in the near future, when, it was hoped, the ex- 
citement would have subsided. 

Mr. John Mecklin arose and said, " 1 am but a 
spectator, but I would advise you to adjourn at once. 
Many of our best people think this to be an un- 



TUPELO. 59 

warranted and illegal proceeding. Civil law is still 
in force, and even if it were superseded by military 
law that fact would not justify the arbitrary course 
of this committee, who have acted without any 
proper or competent authority, civil or military. 
This man is not under your jurisdiction, and you 
may have to answer for this day's proceedings." 

Parson Locke, who was an arrant coward, replied 
that he could not fully agree with the last two speak- 
ers, but in the interests of peace and harmony he 
would adjourn this meeting to a time in the near 
future, when it would be convened at the call of the 
president. 

The committee then hastily adjourned. Parson 
Locke made his exit by a door in the rear of the 
building, and, making a circuit through the woods, 
reached his home without observation. 

The crowd was informed that an adjournment had 
taken place, and that no formal verdict had been ren- 
dered. In a short time the crowd had dispersed. 
Some of the more violent secessionists were greatly 
exasperated when they learned that the vigilance 
committee had not rendered a verdict of guilty and 
ordered my execution. They determined to take the 
matter into their own hands. I was speedily advised 
of their threats. My friends provided me with arms, 
and I resolved to defend myself to the best of my 
ability. One evening I had gone over to a neighbor's, 
Mr. Pickens Mecklin's. It was the dark of the 
moon. As I returned, at a late hour, I heard the 



60 TUPELO. 

trampling of steeds. I concealed myself as they 
approached me. When they had come quite near, the 
men dismounted and tied their horses to trees. One 
said, "Do you think he's at home?" Another, 
"Well, boys, the tory parson's got to sup with Pluto 
to-night." Another said, "All I'm afeard of is that 
some of us will have to sup with him in Pluto's do- 
minions- He's got fight in him, an' no mistake." 

I had heard enough. I hastened home. My wife 
had retired. I quickly armed myself, after barri- 
cading; the doors. After awhile there came a knock. 
No notice was taken of it. Soon a voice said, " Hal- 
loo !" Within the house all was silent as the grave. 
I had cocked both barrels of a gun heavily loaded 
with buckshot. I sat on a chair and aimed at the 
door, resolved to shoot the first that entered, should 
they succeed in breaking in the door. Soon there 
was a noisy demonstration. At length two of the 
men volunteered to go to the rear of the building, to 
the woodpile, and get a log to use as a battering-ram 
to break down the door. In their hot haste they ran 
against a clothes-line. I had eked the line with a 
piece of telegraph wire that some one in Vaiden had 
given me a short time before. Both of these men, 
John Cook and a Mr. Tower, were prostrated by the 
recoil, and quite severely injured. Cook was ren- 
dered unconscious, and Tower howled like a beaten 
hound. Several ran to their assistance. At this 
juncture two volleys of firearms were heard in quick 
succession. My would-be assassins ran and cried 
and fled. 



TUPELO. 61 

A Mr. Denman had just finished digging a well 
for me. The structure at the surface, to guard against 
the danger of falling into the well, had not been com- 
pleted. Some of the fugitives fell into the well, de- 
scending with the bucket. How they succeeded in 
getting out, I know not. Dr. Le Grand told me of 
one man, who was his patient, who died of the in- 
juries received on that eventful night. Ho^v I had 
been so opportunely delivered was a mystery I could 
not fathom. My little daughter said to her mother, 
in the lull of the storm, " Ma, may I pray those 
verses you taught me?" Upon receiving permission, 
she arose in bed, knelt upon the pillow, and folding 
her little hands, said : " The angel of the Lord en- 
campeth round about them that fear him, and he 
delivereth them. The righteous cry, and the Lord 
heareth them and delivereth them out of all their 
troubles. They cry unto the Lord in their trouble, 
and he bringeth them out of their distresses. Oh, 
that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and 
for his wonderful works to the children of men. 
Deliver us, O our God, out of the hand of the 
wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel 
men. Oh, God! be not far from us. Oh, God! 
make haste for our help. For Christ our Redeemer's 
sake. Amen." Then she lay down, and was soon 
lost in innocent and unconscious slumber. 

In an hour after the flight of these midnight ma- 
rauders I heard a knock, which T recognized as a 
preconcerted signal of recognition among Unionists. 



62 TUPELO. 

I went to the back door, whence the knock sounded, 
and signaled a reply. A low voice then uttered in a 
distinct tone the sentence, "Liberty and union, now 
and forever, one and inseparable." I opened the 
door ; half a dozen friends entered. They and others, 
who remained on duty, had been guarding my house 
unknown to me. They remained an hour, uttering 
words of comfort, and gave me the assurance of all 
the assistance I should need, though at the peril of 
their lives. After part'ng salutations, I opened the 
door, and my friends disappeared \a the darkness. 
We named this the battle of Wyandotte, the name of 
my home. Probably the first blood of the war was 
shed in this rencontre. 

"War is dread when battle shock and fierce affray 
Perpetuate a tyrant's name; 
But guarding freedom's holy fane, 
Confided to her valiant keeping, 
The sword from scabbard leaping 
Flashes a heavenly light." 

In the afternoon of the next day Elder John Meck- 
lin and his estimable wife came to visit us, bringing 
their young son Keemer with them. Mr. Mecklin 
advised us to say nothing about this attempt upon my 
life, as reticence in war time was a virtue. The per- 
petrators of the dastardly attack would conceal then- 
participation in it, even though some of their number 
should die of their wounds. Excitement must be 
allayed as much as possible. He feared that this 
assault would be followed by others, till they had 
accomplished their nefarious purpose. He said that 



TUPELO. 63 

my public position and avowed sentiments, and the 
fact that I was of northern birth and education, had 
concentrated upon me the malice of all those of seces- 
sion proclivities, but he assured me that my friends 
would defend me at the risk of their lives. I advised 
him of my intention of removing into Attala county, 
near Nazareth church, which was also in my field of 
labor. He approved this course, since the excitement 
here ran very high, but affirmed that there was no 
place within the seceded states very safe for one whose 
Unionism was of so pronounced a type. 

At this time there was a man named Dr. Smith 
who resided in Canton, Mississippi. He frequently 
visited friends in Choctaw county. He was a violent 
secessionist. Having learned of the failure of the 
attempt upon my life, he resolved to take charge of 
the matter himself, and execute summary vengeance 
upon one who had too long been suffered to live. 

I had the charge of three churches — Poplar 
Creek and French Camp, in Choctaw county, and 
Nazareth, in Attala county. French Camp was 
twelve miles from my home, and Nazareth twenty- 
eight miles distant. Dr. Smith determined to come 
to French Camp on the Sabbath I preached in that 
church, and kill me there. He ordered his fast trot- 
ter, Bucephalus, to be attached to the buggy, and pre- 
paring his pistols, he started in hot haste to effect his 
murderous purpose. He reached French Camp about 
one o'clock P.M. He learned that after service I had 
gone to dine .with Major Garrard. This was a mis- 



64 TUPELO. 

take; I dined with Col. Hemphill. Dr. Smith 
dined with Dr. John Hemphill. He made known 
to Dr. Hemphill the object of his visit. The doctor 
tried in vain to dissuade him from his purpose. He 
now determined to follow me to my home and murder 
me there. He called at Col. Hemphill's and learned 
that I had dined with the colonel, and had left en- 
route for my home an hour before. I called at 
Esquire Pilcher's to see his daughter, Miss Belle, who 
was quite ill of malarial fever. After administer- 
ing to her spiritual need, I pursued my journey 
homeward. Dr. Smith had just passed, driving Jehu- 
like (furiously). I followed rapidly, as a storm 
seemed imminent. I heard the vehicle in advance 
and tried to overtake it, as I desired company on this 
lonely road, but my horse was no match for the doc- 
tor's swift steed, so I providentially failed to over- 
take him. 

About three miles from my home Dr. Smith left 
the main road for one that led to a Methodist chapel. 
He drove up to the chapel, descended from his buggy 
and ordered a colored boy to hold his horse. He ap- 
proached a group of men, and noticing one who was 
quite well dressed and had a ministerial look and 
bearing, addressed him thus: 

" Are you, sir, a messenger of the Lord of Hosts?" 

The gentleman smiled and made no reply. The 

doctor then presented a pistol and fired. The ball 

passed through the lungs of his victim. Reason had 

left her throne. The doctor was a raving maniac. 



TUPELO. 65 

The congregation rushed out of the chapel, took the 
doctor into custody, and resolved to administer sum- 
mary vengeance according to the code of Judge Lynch. 
While tluy were waiting for a halter for which they 
had sent, Dr. Smith's brother and other friends 
arrived. They rescued him with difficulty from the 
infuriated crowd, conveyed him to his home in Can- 
ton, an alienist pronounced him hopelessly insane, 
and he soon after became an inmate of the insane 
asylum at Jackson. Deacon Colclough (pro. kokely), 
the doctor's victim, lingered for months on the border 
of the spirit land. The latest information I had in- 
dicated a fatal termination. Thus in the providence 
of God I was once more delivered from the wrath of 
man. 

A rumor found its way into the papers that I had 
been fatally shot by Dr. Smith, of Canton. A friend 
residing in Carthage, Leake county, sent me a paper 
containing this notice: 

" Rev. John H. Aughey, a Presbyterian minister, 
who has been doing evangelistic work in Attala and 
Choctaw counties, was fatally shot last week by Dr. 
Smith, of Canton. The doctor was a monomaniac. 
He believed himself to be commissioned by heaven 
to exterminate all who were not friendly to the ( Jon- 
federate States of America. He had been informed 
that Mr. Aughey had expressed disloyal sentiment-, 
and was a leader of the disaffected. He left home 
with the avowed intention of killing him on siurht. 
The doctor'.- brother, learning the nature of his mis- 
5 



<J6 TUPELO. 

sion, followed, but was unable to overtake him till he 
had committed the fatal deed. The particulars we 
have not learned. Mr. Aughey had the reputation of 
being an able minister, and very faithful in the dis- 
charge of his ministerial duties. That he was one of 
the disaffected is true. The extent of his opposition 
Ave have not learned. In times of great excitement 
rash acts are committed which are not warranted or 
required for the public safety. We regret Mr. 
Aughey's tragic end, and if justifiable we regret the 
necessity that required it. He leaves a widow and 
one child. Requiescai in pace." 

Commodore Spiva, a planter and leading member 
of my church in Attala county, offered myself and 
family a home as members of his family upon condi- 
sion that I would superintend the studies of his son 
and daughter. They had entered upon a course of 
private study supplementary to the finished education 
they had received at the college and seminary. We 
were now domiciled in his spacious mansion on the 
banks of the meandering Yockanookany. We en- 
joyed comparative quiet for a time. My students 
were very much enamored of belles-lettres, and we 
took delightful rambles in the higher walks of liter- 
ature. We enjoyed a continuous feast of reason and 
How of soul. In my absence my wife became my 
vicegerent, and their rapid advance was not retarded. 

The battle of Manassas had been fought and the 
boastful spirit of the secessionists was almost unendur- 
able. The whole confederacy did nothing but brag 



TUPELO. 1)7 

of what had been done and what would be done if 
the Yankees persisted in their futile attempts to sub- 
jugate the South. The South was arming for the 
war. Joyfully and with alacrity the young chivalric 
sons of the slave-holding aristocracy responded to 
the call for volunteers, The young ladies presented 
company and regimental flags of costly material, 
deftly embroidered by their own fair fingers with rare 
and significant designs, to every regiment as it left 
for the theater of war. Upon their departure to the 
seat of war, they were given an ovation, barbecues 
were held, grandiloquent orations were pronounced, 
in which the superiority of the South over the North 
in valor, military skill, and chivalric spirit was an- 
nounced in terms that admitted no contrary opinion. 
They were assured that when they returned victor- 
ions — of which result there was not the least shadow 
of doubt — and had secured the independence of a 
glorious slave-holding confederacy, they would be 
honored living, and when dead their memorv 
would be embalmed in the hearts of a grateful pos- 
terity and remembered with veneration, even until 
the last moment of recorded time. Sax-horn bands 
discoursed delicious music. "The Bonnie Blue 
Flag that Boasts a Single Star," "Maryland, my 
Maryland," and pre-eminently, " Dixie," were played 
and sung by band and orchestra and choir. The 
South had donned her holiday attire, and wine-cup, 
dance, and song ruled the hour. 

"Oh! that the Yankees would come," cried they. 



68 TUPELO. 

" we would welcome them with bloody hands to hos- 
pitable graves. One of our companies is equivalent 
to a regiment of Yankees, and a southern regiment 
more than a match for ten thousand northern 
mudsills." 

One evening Commodore Spiva met me as I walked 
m useful in a grove. He joined me in a walk, and 
shortly drew me to a seat beneath a fig tree and thus 
began: 

" Are you aware that your life is in danger? " 

" Whence the danger ? " 

" There are men in our neighborhood that would 
have made the attempt to assassinate you ere this, but 
they know you are under my protection. I fear that 
as you travel about in the discharge of your pastoral 
duty they may waylay and murder you." 

"I am prepared, if attacked, to defend myself." 

" Your pistols would avail nothing at long range 
against men armed with rifles." 

"Well, what would you advise?" 

"Dr. Hughes will call upon you to-morrow and 
inform yotf of the decision arrived at at an informal 
meeting attended by the leading members and sup- 
porters of Nazareth Church." 

On the next dav Dr. Hughes called to inform me 
that if 1 wished to live long on the earth I must de- 
dare my adhesion unequivocally to the government 
of our nation, the sovereign state of Mississippi, and 
also my good-will toward the subordinate Confeder- 
ate States of America, and my approval of their 
(•(institutions. 



TUPELO. 69 

"Declare my adhesion unequivocally to the gov- 
ernment of our nation, the sovereign state of Missis- 
sippi, and also my good-will toward the subordinate 
Confederate States of America, and my approval of 
their constitutions? Doctor, is there any virtue in 
such a political creed to promote long life?" 

"Yes, we all think so, and we believe the time has 
come when we cannot longer tolerate any sentiments 
in conflict with the views of the dominant class in 
our country. We like you as a man and as a min- 
ister, but we deprecate your treasonable opinions, 
and we cannot much longer, if we would, save you 
from.the vengeance of the soldiers and the vigilantes. 
I will call to-morrow for your decision." 

On the morrow he called, and I told him that I 
had decided to return to Tishomingo county. He 
expressed his approval. I removed my household 
goods to Goodman, a town on the Mississippi Cen- 
tral P. P., ordering their shipment to Iuka. I con- 
veyed my wife and child by private conveyance. 
AVe spent one night in Macon, Noxubee Co. lie v. 
James Pelan had been called to the pastorate of the 
Presbyterian church of Macon. He was a Unionist. 
A committee was appointed by the citizens to ex- 
amine his library. Many of his books were con- 
demned by this committee as containing abolition 
sentiments. Rev. James Pelan was a man of excel- 
lent spirit — a ripe scholar and a worthy christian 
gentleman. His life was being embittered by his 
political enemies. Every sermon was misconstrued 



70 TUPELO. 

and tortured into teaching something contrary to the 
interests of the sovereign state of Mississippi and the 
Confederate States of America. Threats of lynching 
were freely made. The Unionists often conveyed 
secret information of plots against the life of this 
good man. Often his foes endeavored to impair his 
reputation by slander and calumny, but these as often 
recoiled upon their fabricators. Wearied of such a 
life of turmoil, he resigned his charge and removed 
to the country, but the malice of his enemies pursued 
him to his rural retreat. One evening, when walk- 
ing on the lawn near his home, concealed assassins 
fired upon him, wounding him severely. For a long 
time he lingered between life and death, but a natu- 
rally strong constitution, together with good nursing, 
triumphed, aud he began to convalesce. But his 
enemies were on the alert, and ascertaining that he 
was likely to recover, three devils incarnate came 
armed to his house. Mr. Pelan was sitting in a 
chair eating some delicacy that his wife had prepared 
for him. These demons in human form asked Mrs. 
Pelan if they could have supper. She replied, 
"Certainly, 1 will order my servants to prepare sup- 
per for you.' She left the room to give the order 
These men then arose and one of them said, "All the 
supper we want is to kill you, you infernal Unionist 
and abolitionist." I nstantly they all three fired upon 
their wounded and defenseless victim. Mrs. Pelan, 
hearing the report, rushed in and caught her husband 
in her arms. In ten minutes he was a corpse. Be- 



TUPELO. / 1 

fore losing; consciousness the dying martyr said, 
" Father, forgive them, they know not what th< 
do." He also said, "Farewell, dear wife, I die, but 
the government still lives and will eventually subvert 
rebellion, for God is just." His last utterance was, 
" Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Rev. James Pel an 
was of English birth and parentage. His brother, 
Rev. Wm. Pelan, was pastor of the Presbyterian 
church in Connorsville, Ind., for twenty years, now 
of Wells, Faribault Co., Minn. 

Thus died one of my co-presbyters and dear friend-. 
When our presbytery — the presbytery of Tombeck- 
bee — convened at Aberdeen, Ave lodged and roomed 
together at the female seminary, of which Rev. R. S. 
Gladney was principal. Rev. R. S. Gladney was a 
violent secessionist. He had just written a poetical 
defense of slavery, and was woefully vexed that the 
blockade had prevented his publishers, the Lippen- 
eotts, of Philadelphia, from sending him the b< 
A young licentiate named Gallaudet was ordained at 
this session of presbytery to the full work of the 
gospel ministry. Mr. Gladney relinked him quite 
severely in operi presbytery because he had given a 
negative answer to the question, "Will slavery exist 
during the millennium?" Mr. Gladney affirmed 
that it would exist during the millennium, and would 
also exist in a modified form in heaven. The nei - 
sity of the marriage relation would terminate with 
earth, but he thought the southern people would re- 
quire slaves in heaven in order to promote their 
highest happiness. 



72 TUPELO. 

Rev. Gallaudet became pastor of the Presbyterian 
church in Aberdeen. Being a Unionist, the seces- 
sionists bitterly opposed him. At length to save his 
life he was compelled to abandon his field of labor. 
He made good his escape to the North. But poor 
Pelan was not so fortunate. The villain most promi- 
nent in his murder was killed in battle just three 
days after his diabolical crime. The righteous retri- 
bution of Divine Providence was not long delayed. 
Near this Judge Chisholm and his lovely daughter 
were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. 

We spent one night in Okolona, lodging at a 
hotel. A friend whom I had long known lived here. 
His name was Col. Carothers. He was a strong- 
secessionist. He met me just as I had given my 
horse and buggy into the care of the proprietor of 
the hotel. He advised me to register under an as- 
sumed name, as the vigilantes had my name on their 
list of proscribed persons, and if recognized my fate 
would be sealed. He said : " On the morrow a 
regiment will leave for the seat of war in Virginia, 
and if your presence should become known they will 
surely take your life. Colin McI*vor was hanged 
last Monday as a Unionist, although I and several 
others exerted our utmost influence to save his life. 
But it was without avail. We pleaded, but in vain, 
for a respite of two hours that he might make his 
will and bid his family farewell." 

I demurred and declared that 1 was not ashamed 
of my name, that I had not done anything to dis~ 



TUPELO. 7'-) 

grace it. He assured me that I must take his advice 
or pay the penalty of my temerity with my life. I 
walked up to the register and made this record: 
"George Bushrod Washington, wife, and daughter, 
Mt. Vernon, Va." After supper we entered the 
ladies parlor. Mrs. Des Lande, a lady boarder at the 
hotel, called our child to her, took her into her lap 
and said : " "What is your name, my dear ? " 
" Anna Kate Aughey," she lisped. 
" Where do you live ? " 
" Near Kosciusko, Attala Co., Mississippi." 
"Where are you traveling?" 

"To grandpa's, Mr. Alexander Paden's, at Iuka. 
But I think my pa is going to 'scape Norf from the 
bad people that tried to kill him. I heard him tell 
ma so. I ask God every day to take care of my 
dear pa, and ma does too. We are good people and 
love God; what do they want to shoot my poor pa 
for?" 

The ladies present gave each other significant 
glances. Soon after Col. Carothers called me out. 
Said he: "You should not have registered by a 
name so renowned. It has attracted the attention of 
all the loungers at the hotel, and your little daughter, 
Major Linden informs me, has betrayed your secret. 
You should have registered your nom de guerre as 
John Smith, of Pontotoc, or some obscure town. 
Xow do you and family retire to your room at once. 
I will arrange for your safety with Major Linden. 
He will order an early breakfast, and you can start 



74 TUPELO. 

by daylight or a little before. Drive rapidly to 
avoid pursuit, if it should be made, and it would be 
well to start southward and make a circuit as a 
blind." 

We took his advice, and left ere the shades of night 
had lifted from the magnolia-embowered streets of 
Okolona. We started in a southern direction, made 
a circuit of several squares, and left the town via the 
northern suburbs. My good horse, Bellerophon, 
assumed a gait that led us to fear no pursuers. 

" They will have swift steeds that follow with any 
prospect of success," said my wife. 

Our horse slackened not his speed for several hours, 
and our babe slept sweetly and calmly. While the 
guests were at breakfast that morning in Okolona 
the chief of the vigilantes called to ascertain the ante- 
cedents and business in their city of the traveler who 
had registered as George Bushrod Washington. He 
learned, to his surprise and regret, that he had left at 
an early hour. The landlord disclaimed all knowl- 
edge of him or of his destination. At a meeting of 
the vigilantes that morning this matter was brought 
to their attention, but no definite action was taken, 
for lack of testimony, except that this telegram was 
sent to Tupelo: "Look sharp for a suspicious char- 
acter traveling in a buggy with a lady and child. He 
travels incognito, or rather, under the assumed name 
of George Bushrod Washington. If he visits Tu- 
pelo, arrest him and send us word. He evaded us by 
leaving in the night. All charges will be paid out 



TUPELO. 76 

of our secret service fund." Similar messages were 
sent southward to the vigilantes in Columbus, 
Lowndes county, and Meridian, Lauderdale county. 

Upon reaching Marietta, Prentiss county, we met 
Misses Bettie Greene and Josephine Young, my former 
pupils at the Rienzi Female College. At their urgent 
solicitation, we spent the night with their parents. 
These families were Unionists. They informed us 
that Messrs. Wroten and Nowlin, L T nionists, had 
been abducted by the vigilantes a month ago, and 
had not been heard of since. They were either lan- 
guishing in prison, or had been murdered. Their 
families were in great distress because of their omi- 
nous absence. AVe reached the residence of Mr. Alex- 
ander Paden, my wife's father, the next afternoon, at 
four o'clock, without further incident of interest, ex- 
cept that when we reached Mackey's creek we met 
Major Stephen Davenport and Dr. Orton Choate, two 
virulent secessionists, who hurrahed for Jeff Davi.< 
and the Southern Confederacy. They asked me how 
that suited me. I replied, " I am in favor of the 
Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the 
laws." They produced a flask of liquor and drank 
confusion and death to all Yankees, tories, traitor-, 
submissionists, renegades, and abolitionists, Xorth 
and South. Saying, "We will see you later," they 
rode off, brandishing their sword-canes and singing 
"Dixie" in maudlin tones. 

Upon our arrival in Tishomingo county I found 
that the great heart of the county still beat true to 



76 TUPELO. 

the music of the Union. At the last election they 
were permitted to hold the Union delegates received 
1,400 majority. Union sentiments could be expressed 
with entire safety in many localities. Corinth, Iuka, 
and Rienzi had been from the commencement of the 
war camps of instruction for the training of Confed- 
erate soldiers. These three towns in the county being 
thus occupied, Unionists found it necessary, in their 
vicinity, to be more cautious, as the cavalry made 
frequent raids throughout the county, arresting and 
maltreating those suspected of disaffection. Cor- 
inth is a very important strategical point, situated in 
a semi-mountainous country, a branch of the Appa- 
lachian range which diverges from the Allegheny 
mountains and forms the mountains and gold-bearing 
regions of Georgia and Alabama. Here, also, is the 
junction of the Memphis and Charleston with the 
Mobile and Ohio railroads, which form the means of 
communication between the Atlantic and Gulf sea- 
boards. After the reduction of Forts Henry and 
Donelson, and the surrender of Nashville, the Con- 
federates made the Memphis and Charleston railroad 
the base of their operations, their armies extending 
from Memphis to Chattanooga. Soon, however, they 
were all concentrated at Corinth, in Tishomingo 
county. 

Tishomingo and Iuka were two Indian chieftains. 
The town of Iuka was named for one and Tisho- 
mingo Co. for the other. After the battle of Shiloh, 
which was fought on the 6th and 7th of April, 1862, 



TUPELO. i ( 

the Federal army advanced to Farmington, four miles 
north of Corinth, while the Confederates occupied 
Corinth, their rear extending to Rienzi, twelve miles 
south on the Mobile cv. Ohio railroad. Thus there 
were two vast armies encamped in Tishomingo Co. 
Being within the Confederate lines, I, in common 
with many other loyalists, found it difficult to evade 
the rigorously enforced conscript law. Believing 
that in a multitude of counselors there is wisdom, we 
held secret meetings in order to devise the best meth- 
ods for evading the law. We met at midnight's 
weird and solemn hour. Often our wives, sisters, 
and daughters met with us. Our meeting place was 
some ravine or secluded glen, or by some mountain 
m?re, as far as possible from the haunts of the seces- 
sionists. All were armed; even the ladies carried 
concealed revolvers which they knew well how to 
use. We had countersigns so as to recognize friends 
and discern enemies. Taisez vous was the counter- 
sign known bv loyalists from the Ohio river to the 
Gulf of Mexico. The recognition of it was Out, Oui 
(pronounced we, we). It was never discovered by 
the disloyal during the war. The nefarious crime of 
treason we were resolved not to commit. Our coun- 
sels were somewhat divided. We did not coincide 
in opinion upon the question whether we should at- 
tend the militia musters. Some advocating as a 
matter of policy the propriety of attending them; 
others, myself among the number, opposing it for 
conscience's sake, and for the purpose of avoiding 



i 8 TUPELO. 

every appearance of evil. Many who would not 
muster nor be enrolled as conscripts resolved to es- 
cape to the Federal lines, and making the attempt in 
squads, under skillful guides who could course it from 
point to point through the densest forests, with the 
unerring instinct of the panther or catamount or 
aborigines, at length reached the Union army, en- 
listed under the old flag, and have since done good 
service as patriot warriors. 

The vigilantes became very troublesome. They 
arrested and murdered Unionists wherever they 
could be found. Few loyalists dared sleep at home, 
but seeking out some jungle or copse they impro- 
vised a rude arbor or den in which they spent the 
night, and to which they betook themselves when an 
alarm was given by their families or friends. Late 
one evening I saw the beacon fires burning. Mt. Sinai 
was all ablaze, the flames ascending high. The moon 
was obscured by dark dismal clouds. Mt. Nebo 
was lurid. The lambent flames from Pisgah had 
enveloped a stately pine — long since dead — standing 
on the lofty summit far above all other trees. Her- 
mon and Iloreb Mere dark as Erebus. Unless these 
two were illuminated it was but a call to an ordinary 
meeting. We gave these peaks those names to desig- 
nate them so that by the fires kindled upon them 
they might serve as danger signals or call together in 
solemn assemblage the scattered Unionists. At 10 
o'clock p.m. Horcb and Ilermon blazed out from 
their lofty summits. The fierce and spiral flames 



TUPELO. 79 

recalled the pictures of Etna and Vesuvius in the 
geographies of my school days, where the mighty 
waves of glittering fire, through some internal con- 
vulsion, shot from their craters far upward into the 
midnight sky. These indicated a special call, either 
some impending danger was to be guarded against or 
some Unionist had been wounded or slain. I was 
just returning from a visit to Josselyn, Amos, Petrie, 
Aaron 3 and Morrow, who were in hiding and were 
awaiting the return of the guides who had gone with 
a squad to the Federal lines. As soon as I ascer- 
tained that Hermon and Horeb were blazing I re- 
turned to the lair of these hidden ones, and when from 
the summit of a hill they had seen the signal fires 
blazing, they at once started to the place of rendez- 
vous. I did the same after I had secreted my horse 
in the stable of a friend. 

THE MIDNIGHT MEETING, AND BATTLE IN GOOD 
SPRINGS GLEN. 

Dark hills frowned on every side; the waters of 
a crystal spring bubbled up and in mournful cadence 
murmured a sad refrain, then swiftly glided away 
adown the glen ; the midnight moon gazed wistfully 
down from the zenith; fitful clouds and the over- 
arching branches of the lofty forest trees, stately 
monarchs of the woods, obscured her light. I 
reached the place of rendezvous just at the noon of 
night. Quietly approaching from all possible points, 
human forms appeared, gliding noiselessly into the 



80 TUPEPO. 

narrow arena around the spring. The numbers in- 
creasing, this place was tacitly surrendered to the 
women, the men retreating to the hillsides adjacent. 
John Beck received in a whisper from each the coun- 
tersign, "The Union Forever." He reported ninety- 
four present, sixty-five men and twenty-nine ladies. 
[ was the presiding officer, supported by two vice 
presidents, Henry Spence and Byron Hall. 

Washington Gortney arose and said : " Mr. 
President — We are here assembled to determine what 
is the best method of evading the conscript law and 
keeping out of the rebel army. I favor enlisting in 
the Federal army. We will then be far more effi- 
cient in defending our government from subversion 
by traitors. James Reece, who is seated by yonder 
linden tree, and I have proved our faith by our 
works. We are soldiers in the Federal army. We 
fought at Shiloh and are with the army at Farming- 
ton assisting in the siege of Corinth, and soon we 
hope to capture that stronghold and bring deliverance 
to the persecuted Unionists in North Mississippi. If 
you stay here you will be forced into the rebel army, 
or you will be shot or hung, as too many of our 
loyal fellow citizens have been. There are already 
three hundred from this county in the Federal army, 
and four hundred from Franklin, the county contigu- 
ous to this in North Alabama. Leave your families; 
it will be only for a short time. Corinth will fall 
and before the Fourth of July this county, and prob- 
ably the whole state, will be delivered from rebel 



TUPELO. <S1 

domination. I will make this motion: Be it re- 
solved, that we believe it to lie conducive to the best 
interests of ourselves personally, and the Union 
cause, to which we will ever adhere, tor all of suitable 
military age to escape to the Federal army now be- 
sieging Corinth and to enlist in that army." 

Carle Ritter arose and said : " With all my heart 
I second this motion, and I hope that it may be 
adopted with entire unanimity. < )nr numbers have 
been more than decimated by rebel violence within 
the last month, and I firmly believe that this resolu- 
tion presents the best method of securing our own 
safety and overthrowing this ungodly rebellion 
against the best government that ever existed on 
earth — a rebellion inaugurated by slave holders in 
the interests of an institution we detest." 

The president called for remarks. Several made 
brief addresses in favor of its passage. It was then 
passed with entire unanimity. 

At this juncture ominous sounds were heard. 
Dark forms were seen on the hillside to the south. 
Soon a line of battle was formed by our foes. We 
quietly formed in line on the north hillside. They 
dispatched a messenger who crossed the ravine to in- 
form us that they were friends. John Beck hurried 
over and found that they had a former countersign, 
but he saw Bill Robinson and Major I lam at the 
head of the line. Then we knew that we had been 
betrayed and must fight for our lives without hope 
of quarter if dei'eated. We told them not to ap- 
G 



<S2 TUPELO. 

proach a step nearer as we knew their character. 
Major Ham was in command of this force sent to de- 
stroy ns. lie crossed the ravine and informed us 
that he had been within twenty feet of the president 
of the meeting, had heard the speeches and resolu- 
tions passed, was cognizant of our traitorous designs 
against the Southern Confederacy, and informed us 
that we must surrender unconditionally, give up our 
arms, and be sent as prisoners to Corinth. He would 
give us ten minutes for consultation. Should we re- 
fuse he would not hold himself responsible for the 
consequences. He feared that we would all be put 
to death. We replied that we would not surrender 
but would stand for our lives and do the best we 
could, if attacked. He retired, deprecating our 
course. They were startled at our apparent numbers. 
They were led to believe that there Mere but few of 
us, and that our disparity of force compared with 
theirs would lead us to surrender at once. Had we 
surrendered not one of us would have left that glen 
alive. The gathering clouds indicated the near ap- 
proach of a storm. The lightning flashed, the thun- 
der rolled, the rain commenced to fall in torrents. 
In the midst of the storm Ham's men advanced and 
delivered a volley. James Brown fell dead at my side. 
Smith Burgess was shot through the left hand. We 
returned the fire with effect. The women crowded 
round the spring in terror, all except Sadie Beck 
and Sal lie Bitter, who from behind two trees kept 
up an incessant fire with navy repeaters. This in- 



TUPEI.o. 83 

decisive contest had continued for an hour. The 
storm had passed and the moon shone brightly, no 
cloud intervening. John Beck detached nineteen men, 
passed down the glen, and making a circuit ap- 
proached from the summit of the hill in the rear of 
Ham's men. Our fire slacking somewhat, Ham re- 
solved on a charge across the ravine. As they crossed 
the ravine we fired rapidly; one man approaching 
me I emptied all the chambers of my revolver. He 
did the same with his. I was now without any means 
of defense. He approached and raised his revolver 
to strike me with it. I struck first and he fell un- 
conscious at my feet. At that moment I received 
a blow on my head and fell unconscious on my pros- 
trate foe. The last sounds I heard were the cheers 
of Beck and his men coming down the hill in the 
rear of Ham. "When consciousness returned 1 was 
lying on a bed in a cabin surrounded by forest trees. 
Two ladies were the only persons present in the 
cabin, one of whom was seated at my bedside. On 
the green-sward in front of the door lay a man bound 
with cords. Gortney and Reece were seated on the 
ground near him. Gortney had recognized him as 
the guerilla who had murdered his brother only a 
week before because of his Unionism, and for this 
crime declared that he must die. At the moment of 
my tall Ham and his force, finding themselves as- 
saulted in front and rear, precipitately retreated, leav- 
ing the Unionists masters of the field. Six were 
killed outright, two Unionists and four rebels. The 



84 TUPELO. 

dead were buried in separate graves on the hillside. 
I pleaded for the life of Bill Hodge, but Gortney 
was inexorable. I told him that I forgave Hodge 
for the wound he had inflicted upon me. Gortney 
and Reece went to procure me some water. After 
considerable persuasion I secured the consent of the 
ladies and after receiving a solemn oath from Hodge 
that he would not reveal the -whereabouts of the 
cabin or anything to our injury I severed the cords 
that bound him and let him loose. He sprang away 
nimbly, and was ascending a knoll fifty yards dis- 
tant when the sharp report of a rifle rang out on the 
morning air and I saw Hodge fall. "When Gortney 
reached him he was dead. He and Reece buried him 
where he fell. 

On the evening preceding this the vigilantes had 
tried and immediately hung George Payson and 
Rhoderiek Murchison. They compelled them to dig 
their own graves, and then hung them and buried 
them in the graves thev had dug. They had insisted 
upon being buried. The vigilantes said, " Yes, we'll 
bury yon, but you shall dig your graves." 

Payson said that he was a citizen of Bay Minette, 
Baldwin Co., Ala., and Murchison claimed his resi- 
dence in Citronelle, Mobile Co., in the same state. 
He had removed from Multona Springs, Miss., a few 
months before. They said when arrested that they 
were en route to Enola, Butler Co., Ky., to visit 
friends. Upon searching them a letter was found on 
the person of Payson which read thus : 



TUPELO. 85 

Alpharetta, Milton Co., Ga., 

Jan. 28, 1862. 

Dear (leo.: 

The Confederate authorities arc becoming very 
cruel. They have incarcerated a number of our 
neighbors in a filthy prison, and forced several into 
their army. They say traitors to their Confederacy 
must die the death of dogs. My brothers, Leonidas 
and Perceval, have not slept at home for a month. 
M< re than fifty Unionists are in hiding. Good guides 
are difficult to procure. Two are expected from 
Selma soon, and we trust they will be successful in 
conducting to the Federal lines a large company. 
Gillam, Gilson, and Gillette, three Unionists of Seg- 
iiin, Guadalupe Co., Texas, arrived here yesterday. 
They had many hairbreadth adventures in reaching 
this place. They were pursued by hounds, but suc- 
ceeded in poisoning the dogs. They were compelled 
to leave Lee Ayler, who started with them, sick at 
the house of that staunch Unionist, Hornbrook Grad- 
wohl. O, the troublous times we have fallen upon. 
I hear while I write the howling of the hounds in 
search of my brothers and other Unionists, led by 
those terrible vigilantes. But I feel sure that they 
will not be able to find them, thanks to the swamp, 
Little Dismal, and their knowledge of all the success- 
ful methods of destroying the scent and of evading 
or killing the dogs. I must close. 1 have to pre- 
pare food for the hidden ones. It will be taken to 
them to-night. Dear cousin, the loyal people will 



86 TUPELO. 

never be satisfied till the cruel perpetrators of so 
great outrages upon them are adequately punished. 
They deserve a severe penalty for the crimes com- 
mitted to promote the interests of a usurpation or- 
ganized to destroy the best government this world 
has ever known, and to perpetuate an institution sub- 
versive of the rights of man. 

Your affectionate Cousin, 

Jennie Silverthorn. 

This letter led the vigilantes to infer that Payson 
and Murchison were endeavoring to escape to the 
Federal lines. They were convicted and hanged, 
and buried in the grave they were compelled to dig. 

I received three citations to appear on a certain 
day to be enrolled to attend muster as a conscript. I 
paid no attention to the citations. At length I received 
this summons to attend court-martial: 

Ma. the 22, 1862. 
Parson John H. Awhay: 

You havent tended nun of our mustters as a kon- 
skrip. Now you is herby summenzd to atend a kort 
marshal at Jim Mocks. June the furst. 

Blount. 

When 1 received this summons I called a meeting of 
the Unionists. Several had on the same day received 
similar official notices to attend the court-martial. 
We spent a whole night in consultation. We were 
one hundred strong, and I advocated attending in a 
body, properly armed, and, if necessary, to accept the 



TUPELO. 8/ 

gage of battle, but McElhinny and Scotland's 
wives had learned that a large force of cavalry from 
Corinth would be sent to assist the vigilantes. The 
majority refused to credit this report till a note was 
read from Miss May Coe, who was a spy in our in- 
terest. We could not doubt the authenticity of her 
information, corroborative of Mesdames McElhinny 
and Scotland's report. We then resolved as a dernier 
resort to make the attempt to reach Farmington, 
where the Federal army was encamped besieging 
Corinth. When I reached Rienzi it was evident 
that the Confederates were evacuating Corinth. On 
the 1st day of June (the day appointed for the con- 
vening of the court-martial) I had the pleasure of 
once more beholding the star spangled banner, as it 
was borne in front of General Gordon Granger's 
command, which led the van of the pursuing army. 
Thus for the present I escaped death at the hands of 
the rebels. 

General W. S. Rosecrans upon his arrival made 
his head-quarters at the house of my brother, David 
H. Anghey, where I had the pleasure of forming his 
acquaintance, and that of Generals Ammen, Smith, 
Pope, and others. Tishomingo county was now 
measurably in possession of the Federal army. Col. 
Elliott, in his successful raid upon Booncville, passed 
Jim Mock's, at whose house the court-martial was to 
convene, scaring him so greatly that he dared not 
sleep in his house for several weeks. The Union 
cavalry scoured the country in all directions, and we 



88 TUPELO. 

were rejoicing in the prospect of continuous safety 
and freedom from outrage. 

The rebels in their retreat had burned all the cot- 
ton which was accessible to their cavalry on their route. 
At night the flames of the burning cotton lighted up 
the horizon for miles around. These baleful pyres 
with their lurid glare bore sad testimony to the hor- 
rors of war. In this wanton destruction of the great 
southern staple, many families lost their whole staff 
of bread, and starvation stared them in the face. 
Many would have perished had it not been for the 
liberal contributions of the North, for learning of the 
sufferings of the poor of the South, whose whole sup- 
ply had been destroyed by pretended friends, they 
sent provisions and money, and thus many avIio were 
left in utter destitution were rescued from perishing by 
this timely succor. I have often heard the rejoicings 
and benedictions of the poor, who, abandoned by their 
supposed friends, were saved with their children from 
death by the beneficence of those Avhom they had been 
taught to regard as enemies — the most bitter, impla- 
cable, and unmerciful. Their prayer might well be, 
"Save us from our friends, whose tender mercies are 
cruel." I have never known a man to burn his own 
cotton, and I have heard bitter anathemas and fierce 
invective hurled at those who thus robbed them, and 
their denunciations were loud and deep against the 
government which authorized such cruelty. It is true 
those who lose their cotton, if secessionists, receive a 
promise to pay, which all regard as not worth the 



TUPELO. 89 

paper upon which it is written. Ere pay day those 
who are dependent upon their cotton for the neces- 
saries of life would have passed that bourne whence 
no traveler returns. 

'Tis like the Confederate bonds — at first they were 
made payable two years after date, and they were 
printed upon paper so worthless that it would be en- 
tirely worn out in six months, and the promise to 
pay would have become illegible in half that time. 
The succeeding issues were made payable six months 
after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the 
United States and the Confederate States. Though 
not a prophet, nor a prophet's son, I venture the 
prediction that those bonds will never become due. 
The war of elements, the wreck of matter, and 
the crash of worlds announcing the final consum- 
mation of all things will be heard sooner. 

As the prospect was so favorable that this whole 
region of country would soon be in the hands of the 
Federal troops and occupied by them, I deemed it 
safe to return to my father-in-law's, in the south-east- 
ern part of Tishomingo Co. I applied to Gen. Rose- 
crans for a pass through the lines for myself, wife, 
and child. Gen. Rosecrans went with me to see 
General Pope, and after introducing me and vouching 
for my loyalty, asked him for the pass I desired. 
Gen. Pope said that he had issued orders to the effect 
that no passes through the lines should bo granted 
for a specified time. Gen. Rosecrans then proffered 
to send Captain Gilbert, one of his staff officers, with 



90 TUPELO. 

us beyond the lines. This he said was done in con- 
sideration of the kindness I had shown him and staff 
upon his arrival in Rienzi. He told me that the 
rebels were over there in the woods not more than a 
fourth of a mile distant, and that they were about to 
move upon them. He advised me to return to Rienzi 
till the rebels were driven farther south. We were 
then near Mr. McClaren's, seven miles from Rienzi, 
on the road to Booneville. I resolved to run the risk, 
as Mrs. Aughey was anxious to return to her father's. 
We started and had not gone far when the screaming- 
shells and bursting bombs came howling; through the 
valley. Then followed the rattle of musketry, and 
presently the impinging of steel. The din of battle 
sounded in our ears. Suddenly a shell, screeching like 
a howling demon, passed over us. The pomp and 
circumstance of glorious war were displayed to our 
startled gaze. A retrograde was as dangerous as a 
forward movement, and we persistently followed our 
leader, Captain Gilbert. Our child, not realizing the 
danger, laughed merrily at the grand panorama. 
Soon a charge was sounded and the rebels fled pell- 
mell, pursued vigorously by the victorious boys in 
blue. I had no fear for my own personal safety be- 
cause of the excitement, but feared greatly that some 
of the missiles might injure wife or child. But they 
seemed to bear a charmed life, for though the air was 
full of messengers of death, and many whistled by in 
close proximity, none did us the least injury. Several 
times when a shell exploded near, our horse reared 



TUPELO. 91 

and plunged, to the imminent peril of the occupants of 
the vehicle. Before the noise of the battle had wholly 
ceased my wife pointed to a navy repeater lying on 
the ground. I descended from the buggy and secured 
it. 

At this time all marketable commodities were com- 
manding fabulous prices. Flour sold at $30 per bar- 
rel, bacon 40 cents per pound, coffee one dollar per 
pound ; salt was nominally one hundred dollars per 
sack of one hundred pounds, but there was none to 
be obtained even at that high price. All manufactured 
goods were very costly. Upon the occupation of the 
country by Federal troops goods could be obtained 
at reasonable prices, but our money was all expended 
except Confederate bonds, which Mere worthless. 
Planters who lived beyond the lines of the retreating- 
rebel army had cotton, but they feared to sell it as 
the rebels called it treason to trade with the invaders, 
and threatened to inflict the penalty in every case. 
As there was no penalty attached to the selling of 
cotton by one Mississippian to another, my Unionist 
friends offered to sell their cotton to me for whatever 
price I could afford to pay. I was also solicited to 
act as their agent in the purchase of commodities. I 
agreed to this risk because of the urgent need of my 
friends, many of whose families were destitute of the 
indispensable necessaries of life. I thought it was 
better that one should take a great risk than that 
many people should perish. By this arrangement 
my Unionist friends would escape the punishment 



92 TUPELO. 

meted out to those who were found guilty of trading 
with the Yankees ; if discovered I alone would be 
amenable to their unjust and, under the appalling 
environment, extremely cruel and vindictive law, and 
my friends would thus save their cotton liable to be 
destroyed at any moment by a dash of rebel cavalry. 
I sold their cotton, procured supplies for the famish- 
ing, and thus relieved the wants of many. I did not 
charge one cent for commission fees, and expended 
one hundred dollars of my own money to furnish 
provisions for families utterly destitute, some of whom 
had not tasted food for day.-. One day I rode into 
luka to the head-quarters of Gen. Wm. Nelson. The 
Gen. told me that he learned that Norman's bridge 
over Bear creek was held by a force of rebels. He 
asked me if I could send one or two Union men to 
that place to ascertain the number and position of the 
troops holding that point. I replied that I could. 
I secured the services of Wm. and John Thompson, 
who were brothers and staunch Unionists, to accom- 
plish this hazardous undertaking. Only one of them 
succeeded. He got through on the pretext that he 
was desirous of getting medicine for his sick wife. 
He gave the diagnosis, procured the medicine at a 
cost of three dollars, and returned. During his brief 
stay he learned the probable number and disposition 
of the troops stationed at the bridge, and discovered 
the vulnerable point and recommended a plan of at- 
tack. 1 conveyed his report to Gen. Nelson. The 
next nio-ht the attack was made and not a rebel sol- 



TUPELO. 93 

dier escaped death or capture. Thus was Norman's 
bridge captured and destroyed. 

One day I rode over to Mr. Holland Lindsay's on 
business. I had learned that he was a rabid seces- 
sionist, but supposed that no rebel cavalry had come 
so far north as his house since the evacuation of Cor- 
inth. Mr. Lindsay had gone to a neighbor's. His 
wife was engaged in weaving. She was a coarse, 
masculine woman, and withal possessed of a strong 
prejudice against all whom she did not like, but an 
especial hatred of the Yankees rankled in her bosom. 
I sat down to await the return of her husband. 80011 
Mrs. Lindsay broached the exciting topic of the daw 
the war. She thus vented her spleen against the 
Yankees : 

"There wur a Yankee critter company (cavalry) 
come along here last week. They hearn a noise an' 
thought our troops waz a comin' so they drawed up 
in two streaks of fight right in front ov our house. 
Arter a while they axed me ef I haddent seen no 
rebels scoutin' round here lately. I jes' tole 'em it 
warntnone ov their bizness. Them nasty, no-account 
scamps callin' our men rebels. Them triflin', nigger- 
stealin' scoundrels. They runs off our niggers an' 
won't let us take 'em to Mexico an' the other terri- 
tories." 

I ventured to remark, " The Yankees are mean 
indeed, not t<> let its take our negroes to the territories 
and not help catch them for us when they run off." 

The emphatic us and our nettled her, as none of 



94 TUPELO. 

the Lindsays had ever owned a negro, being classed 
by the white nabobs as poor white trash, nor did I 
ever own a slave. 

She replied: "I've hearn that you is atory." She 
became reticent, indeed quite morose. I concluded 
to ride over to Mr. Spigener's, to whose house Mrs. 
Lindsay had informed me her husband had gone. 
On the way I met Hill's cavalry. One of them 
halted me, inquired my name and business, which I 
gave. He informed me that Mr. Lindsay had gone 
across the fields home and that he was on his way to 
Mr. Lindsay's. When we reached Mr. Lindsay's 
house we saw him in the yard. I transacted my busi- 
ness with him as quickly as possible. Some soldiers 
had gone into the house. Mrs. Lindsay told them 
that I was a double-dyed tory and advised my arrest. 
The cavalrymen were all around me. Davis, Lind- 
say's nephew, came out and ordered my arrest. He 
sent my horse to the stable. After supper my horse 
was brought and I was taken to camp. I Mas now 
a prisoner in the hands of my own and my country's 
enemies. Four men were detached to guard me dur- 
ing the night. They ordered me to lie down on the 
ground and sleep. The ground was wet and I had 
no blanket, so I insisted upon going to Mr. Spige- 
ner's, about one hundred yards distant, to secure a 
bed. They Mould not consent, but I started without 
permission. The guards followed me. Mr. Spige- 
ner gave me a bed, the guards remaining in the room 
watched me while I slept. The next morning I 



TUPELO. 95 

asked permission to see their captain, whose name 
was Hill. I asked to be allowed to return home, in- 
forming him that I had been arbitrarily arrested by 
some of his men. I said that I was a civilian and 
not amenable to military law. Capt. Hill replied : 

"Are you a Unionist?" 

" I voted the Union ticket, sir." 

"That is not a fair answer. I voted the Union 
ticket myself. Xow I am warring against the 
Union." 

"I have seen no valid reason for changing my 
sentiments." 

"You confess, then, that you are a Unionist?" 

" I do. I regard the union of these states as of 
paramount importance to the people inhabiting them." 

"You must goto head-quarters, where you will be 
dealt with as we are accustomed to deal with all the 
abettors of an abolition government." 

A guard numbering fifteen were detached to take 
charge of me. The apparent leader was a soldier 
named Saccapee Yaudreuil, who claimed that he was 
a descendant of Pocahontas in the 10th generation. 
They then started to convey me to Fulton, the county 
seat of Itawamba Co., Miss. When we reached a 
cross-roads about 12 miles from the point of starting, 
we found a company in charge of a Unionist prisoner 
named Benjamin Clarke. We were then placed in 
charge of two men, Dr. Crossland, of Burnsville, and 
Ferdinand Woodruff. They were under the influence 
of liquor and were very insulting in their denuncia- 



96 TUPELO. 

tions of all traitors to the Southern Confederacy. 
They detailed to each other a history of their licen- 
tious amours. Dr. Crossland Avas the father of a 
very pretty little girl 'whose mother was a poor white 
woman. We halted for dinner. They asked me to 
pay for it, which I did, they promising to refund the 
money when we reached Fulton. This they forgot 
to do. 

On our arrival at Fulton we Mere taken to the 
head-quarters of Col. Bradfute, the commander of the 
post. My fellow-prisoner was examined first. Wood- 
ruff stated that they had played off on Clarke. They 
had visited him as he was plowing in his field, tell- 
ing him that they were Federal soldiers — they were 
disguised as such — Clarke assured them that he was 
a Unionist, and that he hoped soon to enlist in the 
Federal army. Bradfute became very angry upon 
hearing this, swearing that Clarke ought to be taken 
out and shot then, but he said a few days' respite 
would make but little difference, as Gen. Beauregard 
would not allow such a tory to live long. Said he, 
addressing the guards, "Had you hung Clarke you 
would have saved us some trouble and have done 
your country good service." The colonel, turning 
round, glared upon me with eyes inflamed with pas- 
sion and liquor, and thus addressed me: "Are you 
a Unionist, too?" 

" I am, sir. I have never denied it." 

"Where do you reside?" 

" My home is Rienzi, Tishomingo Co., Miss." 



TUPELO. 97 

"What is your profession?" 

"I am a minister of the Gospel." 

" I suppose, then, that you go to the Bible for your 
polities, and that you are a sort of higher law man?" 

" My Bible teaches, let every soul be subject to the 
higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The 
powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, 
therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance 
of God, and they that resist shall receive to them- 
selves damnation. I have seen no valid reason for 
resistance to the government under which as a nation 
we have so long prospered." 

"I command you to hush ; you shan't preach trea- 
son to me, and if you were to get your deserts you 
would be hanged immediately. Have you ever been 
within the Federal lines?" 

" I have, sir." 

"At what points?" 

"Eienzi and Iuka." 

" When were you at Iuka?" 

" On last Saturday." 

"Had the Federals a large force at that place, and 
who was in command?" 

"They have a large force, and Generals Thomas 
and Steedman were in command." 

"That is contrary to the report of our scouts, who 
say that there are but two regiments in the town. 
I fear you arc purposely trying to mislead us." 

"Gen. Steedman has but two regiments in the 
town, but Gen. Geo. IT. Thomas is within striking 
distance with a large, force." 
7 



ii8 TUPELO. 

"What was your business at Iuka?" 

" I went there to pay a debt of fifty dollars which 
a widow — Mrs. Nixon Paden — owed. She wished 
it to be paid in Confederate money before it became 
worthless." 

"Have you a Federal pass?" 

"I have none with me, but have one at home." 

"How does it read?" 

"It was given by Gen. Wm. Nelson, and reads 
thus: 'The bearer, Rev. John H. Aughey, has per- 
mission to pass backward and forward through the 
lines of this division at will.'" 

" Where were you born ? " 

"In New Hartford, Oneida Co., New York." 

"Yankee born," said the colonel, with a sneer, 
"you deserve death at the rope's end, and if I had 
the power I would hang all Yankees who are among 
u-, for they are all tories, whatever their pretensions 
may be." 

"My being born north of the nigger line, Col., if 
a crime worthy of death, was certainly my misfor- 
tune, not my fault, but the fault of my parents. 
They did not so much as consult me as to any pref- 
erence 1 might have as to the place of my nativity." 

Woodruff, one of the guards, now informed Col. 
Bradfute that I was a spy, and while the Confeder- 
ates were at Corinth had, to his certain knowledge, 
visited Nashville, Tenn., carrying information. 

I told Woodruff that his statement was false, and 
that he knew that it was utterly without foundation 
in fact. 



TUPEL< ». 09 

At the close of the examination, Col. Bradfute and 
an officer, whom the guards told us was (Jen. 
Chalmers, spent fifteen or twenty minutes in bitterly 
cursing and denouncing all traitors, Yankees, and 
tories, as they termed us. 

Gen. Chalmers wrote me from Washington City, 
while he was a member of congress, that he was not 
the officer who was present with Col. Bradfute. 
That on that day he was eight miles e.:st of Fulton, 
busily engaged in making preparations for a battle 
with Gen. Philip Sheridan, which was fought on 
the next day; and he asserted that he wotdd not 
have treated prisoners with so great insolence and 
severity. He also denied any complicity in the Fort 
Pillow massacre. This officer, at the instance of 
Col. Bradfute, wrote to Gen. Pfeiffer. He absented 
himself for a short time, and I, from my position 
behind his chair, could read the letter. The follow- 
ing sentences occurred in the document : " An avowed 
Unionist. Has done our cause much harm. Advo- 
cates reconstruction at this late day. A pestilent 
fellow. Has in our presence uttered treasonable sen- 
timents, and seems to take pleasure in doing so. 
He has held treasonable correspondence with the 
enemy, and has more than once enacted the spy. 
We can furnish testimony to establish all the above 
charges." We were then placed under guard and 
■sent to the head-quarters of Gen. Pfeiffer, in Saltillo. 
We were brought into the august presence of this 
redoubtable general. When he read the letter handed 



100 TUPEPO. 

him by the guards, he soundly berated us, and then 
sent us out a mile and a half from town, where we 
were placed under guard for the night in a small 
plat of ground surrounded by a chain. Quite 
a number of prisoners were there under guard; 
it was a sort of guard house, except that there 
was no house. No supper was furnished us, and 
the bare, cold ground was our bed and the blue 
canopy of heaven our covering. 

The next morning we were brought into the pres- 
ence of Gen. Pfeiffer. I asked for breakfast. This 
was refused. I offered to pay a dollar for a meal, 
as I was very hungry. To this he deigned no reply. 
I then offered three dollars for a lunch for myself 
and Clarke. This offer was arrogantly refused. He 
said he had no supplies for traitors at any price. 

Said he, "I learn that you were born in New 
Hartford, Xew York, brought up in Steubenville, 
Ohio. How long have you lived in the South?" 

"I have lived in the South eleven years." 

"Where have you lived?" 

" In Winchester, Clark county, Ky., Baton Rouge, 
La., Memphis, Tennessee, Holly Springs, Miss. 
My home at present is Rienzi, Miss." 

"Are you a slave-holder?" 

"I am not." 

"Will you take the oath of allegiance to the Con- 
federate States of America?" 

"I will not," 

"Have you recently taken the oath of allegiance 
to the United States of America?" 



TUPELO. 10] 

" I have." 

"Where and when?" 

"Gen. Wm. Nelson administered to me the oath 
June 8th, 1862, at his head-qnarters in Iuka, Miss." 

"Do you regard that oath of any binding force?" 

" I do, most assuredly." 

"Did you take it voluntarily?" 

"I certainly did." 

" Do you know that in taking that oath you he- 
came guilty of treason against the Confederate States 
of America, and the Republic of Mississippi?" 

" I could not be a traitor to a cause I never es- 
poused, nor betray the interests of a government 
which I have always denounced as a usurpation. I 
profess to be a loyal citizen of the state of Mississ- 
ippi and of the United States of America, and I 
hope to see this state, whose true interests I have 
ever endeavored to promote, return to her allegiance 
to the Federal Union which she has for the present 
endeavored to repudiate. I hope the sober second 
thought will lead her to see and repent her foil}'. 
Had the secession ordinance been submitted to the 
people and a free ballot and a fair count allowed, 
then we would have voted it down by a majority of 
more than two to one." 

"Are you a higher law man?" 

"Yes, I believe in the command, ' Let every soul 
be subject unto the higher power,' the powers that 
be." 

"Well, the Confederate authorities are the higher 



102 TUPELO. 

powers, and the powers that be. The Confederate 
government is the government de facto, and by the 
Bible rule you ought to submit to it as a good citi- 
zen." 

"Any insurrectionary faction usurping temporarily 
the reins of government, may have a de facto power 
to compel obedience to its behests by those who 
are willing to acquiesce rather than endure the 
penalty for resistance of its illegal and tyrannical 
exactions. Mobs in cities are often the powers that 
be, and a horde of bandits have often been the de facto 
rulers, terrorizing the people of a wide district, and 
for a time defying the civil authorities. I regard 
the Federal government engaged in quelling rebellion 
as the dejure government to which I owe allegiance. 
Those who are engaged in rebellion against this gov- 
ernment are traitors to their God, recreant to their 
own best interests, and are guilty of treason against 
the best government the world has ever known." 

" Do you know, sir, that all you have uttered has 
been recorded, and that you have spoken these words 
against your own life?" 

We were then delivered to the guards, fourteen in 
number, and conducted to a hamlet near Verona, 
where were the head-quarters of Gen. Sterling Price. 
We were brought into the presence of Gen. Thomas 
Jordan, Gen. Beauregard's chief of staff. When he 
read the letter from Gen. Pfeiffer, handed him by 
one of the guards, he said, looking at me sternly : 
" You, sir, are charged with sedition." 



TUPELO. L03 

" What does sedition mean ? " 

" It means enough to hang you, you villainous 
tory. Where were you born." 

"In New Hartford, near Utica, Oneida county. 
New York." 

" Born in an abolition state, you doubly deserve 
to die, and no mercy or pity should be shown you." 

" As to the guilt attached to my first seeing the 
light in the Empire state, if sin, it is not mine, but 
the sin of my parents. But you talk as a veritable 
son of folly, and in so doing you reproach God. 
Parents, native place, and clime. All appointed were 
by Him. But I glory in my native state. New- 
York has never done anything to stain her fair 
escutcheon. She has never repudiated her just debts. 
She has never nullified Federal laws. She has never 
attempted to secede from the Union. Permit me, 
General, to ask you where you were born and edu- 
cated?" 

"I was born in Georgia, and graduated from the 
military academy at West Point, in your native 
state." 

"New York may have, in some degree, tarnished 
her fair fame by nourishing in her bosom and allow- 
ing to be educated within her borders, a feAv traitors 
to the Federal government, but it is some palliation 
that it was not wittingly done." 

" Do you call me a traitor to my face ?" 

" I make no personal application, but allow each 
one for himself to draw the inference his own con- 
duct justifies." 



104 TUPELO. 

" If you were so enamored of New York, why 
did you not stay there or return when Mississippi 
seceded, or when an act was passed by the congress 
of the Confederate States of America, entitled 'An 
act respecting alien enemies,' warning and requiring 
every male citizen of the United States, fourteen 
years old and upward, to depart from the Confeder- 
ate States of America within forty days from the date 
of the president's proclamation, which was issued 
August 14, 1861, this proclamation excepting from 
its operation Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Mis- 
souri, District of Columbia, and the territories of 
New Mexico, Arizona, and Indian Territory." 

"I regard Mississippi as still a member of the 
Federal Union, and the act of secession illegal and 
unconstitutional, and therefore void. I am a citizen 
of the United States of America. If the proclama- 
tion issued August 14, 1861, was aimed at and in- 
cluded the Unionists, we were recognized as citizens 
of the United States at that date, many months 
after the passage of the secession ordinance, and as 
we have as ofren as it has been offered, firmly refused 
to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate 
States of America, and thereby become citizens of the 
Southern Confederacy, we are still, as you must 
acknowledge, citizens of the United States of America. 
If we are citizens of the Confederate States of Amer- 
ica, why so persistently offer us the oath of allegi- 
ance. Many citizens of Germany, Great Britain 
and Ireland, and other foreign countries, have long 



TUPELO. 1 05 

resided in our country and have never taken the oath 
of allegiance, or become naturalized. Why not allow 
us to remain as residents within, but not as citizens 
of, the Confederate States of America?" 

"By your own statement you are an alien enemy 
of our Confederacy, and have no rights that we are 
bound to respect. You clearly come within the 
scope of the law and proclamation. My plan would 
have been to suffer all alien enemies to depart in 
peace who were willing to accept the offer, and hang 
those who desired to stay and do us all the harm 
they could." 

" The Unionists are a mighty host. In forty days 
they could not dispose of their property." 

"No, they would not be allowed to take with them 
any of their property. Our congress passed a law to 
the effect that the property of all in the South who have 
a domicile in the North shall escheat to the Confederate 
States, and that any of our citizens who are indebted 
to citizens of the United States shall, upon payment 
of three-fourths of their indebtedness to the treasury 
of the Confederate States of America, be liberated 
from any claim upon them by their alien creditors." 

" Perfidy personified ! Now, sir, suppose the cause 
of the Union should triumph, what will become 
of those like you who have taken a solemn oath to 
support the government at whose expense you have 
been educated, and then in violation of that oath, and 
forgetful of her fostering care, as base ingrates have 
rebelled and with malice prepense are endeavoring to 



J 06 TUPELO. 

subvert the best government on earth, a government 
which has never in person or property inflicted upon 
you a single injury, but has bestowed many favors, 
and superabundant blessings?" 

" I will never ask clemency from a government I 
detest. There is no danger of abolitionism and 
puritanism triumphing. Should they do so I would 
make my home in Brazil or Cuba. I will hear no 
more of your detestable palaver. Jefferson Davis, in 
clemency and mercy to the misguided, issued his 
proclamation; those who have not availed themselves 
of it must bear the terrible and just consequences." 

" My friends who expressed their willingness to 
accept Jeff Davis' permission to leave, are cither dead 
or languishing in gloomy prisons. It was only a 
piece of treachery on the part of your honorable pres- 
ident and his most honorable congress. But just give 
me a pass to go north and I will go instanter." 

" The first pass you will get will be a free ticket 
to hell, where you would have been long ago if the 
devil had his due, or the Confederate officers had 
done their duty." 

"Thanks, for your kind offer to give me a free 
ticket to the infernal regions. I was not aware be- 
fore that you were the devil's ticket agent. You 
have me in your power and may take my life, but 
you cannot destroy the government. It will live 
long after you and I are dead. But what right, may 
I ask, have you, avIio believe in state sovereignty, 
vou, a citizen of what you term the republic of 



TUPELO. 107 

Georgia, to leave your own nation, and crossing the 
foreign republic of Alabama, enter the republic of 
Mississippi, and interfere with me, one of its humble 
citizens, who has never breathed the air of your 
august republic to do you or any of the citizens of 
your foreign government any harm. This is an un- 
warranted and unlawful act, and evinces a high 
degree of presumption upon the part of an alien — a 
foreigner who has not, I opine, been naturalized 
since his advent into our nation, the independent, 
sovereign republic of Mississippi." 

" Did you oppose the secession of Mississippi ?" 

"I did, but I now favor it. I trust that she will 
soon become convinced of her folly and secede from 
this confederation and resume her allegiance to the 
Federal union." 

"That tongue of yours will not long give utterance 
to such vile and treasonable sentiments, you ought 
upon your capture to have been sent to hell from the 
lowest lateral limb of the nearest tree. Corporal of 
the guard, take charge of the prisoners." 

We were soon under way to Tupelo. When we 
reached this town we were conducted to the office of 
the provost marshal. We underwent an examination 
here in presence of officers of high rank, Gen. Brax- 
ton Bragg, Gen. Hardee, and Gen. Sterling Price 
being among the number. Their insignia of high 
rank, their dignified bearing, their resolute demeanor, 
their searching and subtle questions, wisely put to 
elicit the desired information to secure our condem- 



108 TUPELO. 

nation, awed me into reticence. I perceived that my 
life hung in a balance, and realized as never before 
the necessity of exercising great discretion in giving 
answers so as not to provoke these officers (who had 
the authority to order my immediate execution), and 
thus avoid the doom which a single incautious word 
would doubtless precipitate. 

I told General Bragg, in reply to one of his lead- 
ing questions, evidently designed to force from my 
lips a confession of my guilt, that it was an admitted 
principle in law, that no one is required to criminate 
himself. 

General Sterling Price, who had just completed a 
dispatch which he handed to a courier, ordering him 
to convey it as speedily as possible to some subaltern 
in Verona, with a sharp look and an air of triumph 
said, " Your answer, by implication, admits your 
guilt. You would, it seems, shelter yourself behind 
a provision of the common law, which is suspended 
in its operation by martial law, which supersedes 
civil law during the continuance of the Mar. Will 
you take the oath of allegiance?" 

"I will not make any admission nor confession, 
nor will I take the oath of allegiance." 

" Well," said General Bragg, "we will await the 
testimony. From the tenor of this paper which I 
hold in my hands, there seems to be an abundance 
of it. We have too long been lenient with this dan- 
gerous class in our midst. I am inclined to punish 
them hereafter to the extent of my authority and the 
demerit of their treasonable conduct." 



TUPELO. 1 09 

Clarke trembled like an aspen, and utterly refused 
to make any statement. I felt greatly depressed. I 
■was hungry, thirsty, greatly fatigued, and mentally 
disquieted, knowing that my wife would be much 
distressed because of my ominous absence, the cause 
of which she could only conjecture. 

We were then taken into the presence of the com- 
mander of the post. The provost marshal's name 
was Paden — the name of the commander was Clare. 
Gen. Thomas Jordan was now present, as well as the 
former named officers of distinguished rank. Gen- 
eral Jordan made a statement. I feared from the 
interjected utterances of Gen. Bragg that we would 
be shot or hung at once. He was very angry, and 
several times declared that we deserved immediate 
execution. At length, in apparently great excitement 
and indignation, he called the officer of the guard, and 
I feared the worst, but he only ordered him to take 
us to the dungeon. We were speedily committed to 
prison. When we entered, two men, Capt. Bruce 
and Lieut. Richard Malone, men who had been 
elected to these positions by their fellow prisoner-, 
received us with a cordial greeting. We told them 
that we were perishing from hunger and thirst. 
Bruce and Malone set two of the prisoners at work to 
prepare something for us to eat. Bruce, addressing 
us, said, "Our bill of fare is not very extensive nor 
inviting. We have no coffee, nor molasses, nor sugar, 
nor salt, nor beef, nor vegetables. In these war 
times w r e must not be epicures nor expect the luxuries 



110 TUPELO. 

of life, but be content with what Ave can get, just 
what is indispensable in prolonging existence. We 
are allowed to do our own cooking, but that, in the 
kindness of heart of the Confederate authorities, is 
accorded as a favor, an indispensable sanitary regula- 
tion. We have but little exercise, they say, and ex- 
ercise being conducive to health, cooking promotes 
that object. We will soon have ready for you some 
corn-bread and a little meat. The meat makes up in 
strength and odor what it lacks in quantity, and the 
parasites will impart a freshness to it so that you will 
think of fresh meat while chewing it." The prison 
was filthy in the extreme, and full of vermin, even 
our food was infested. No brooms were furnished 
us, and we could not sweep the floor. No beds or 
bedding were provided, and we were compelled to sleep 
upon the floor without covering and nothing but the 
hard planks underneath us. When night came a 
space on the floor was assigned to Clarke and myself. 
We lay clown on our hard bed and tried to sleep, 
but our slumbers were sadly disquieted by the cold 
and filth and hardness of the floor, and the gray- 
haeks, with which our clothing was already infested. 
The building had been an old grocery. Now it was 
metamorphosed into a prison. Where we 4 lay the 
floor was saturated with molasses. When I tried to 
rise in the morning I could not. My coat was ap- 
parently hermetically fastened to the floor. Clarke 
was in the same condition, lie, through the aid of 
a fellow prisoner, succeeded in freeing himself from 



TUPELO. Ill 

the adhesive floor. He then assisted in extricating 
me, but a part of my coat remained attached to my 
wooden couch. 

The crimes charged upon the prisoners were deser- 
tion, trading with the Yankees, adhesion to the Fed- 
eral Government or Unionism, enacting the spy, re- 
fusing Confederate bonds and money, piloting the 
Yankees, the utterance of treasonable language, etc. 
The crime of the negroes, mulattoes, quadroons, and 
octoroons was endeavoring to escape from Dixie-land 
and the Iron Furnace of slavery, via the underground 
railroad. These remained till their masters, learning 
of their arrest, came for and released them. On the 
evening succeeding our incarceration two prison- 
ers had been led out and shot. I soon learned 
that this was not an unusual occurrence. Nearly 
every day one or more suffered death as the punish- 
ment of their patriotism. Many of the prisoners 
wore heavy fetters. Some were handcuffed, had fet- 
ters on their ankles, and were chained to bolts in the 
floor. Often, without previous warning, the guards 
came, accompanied by an officer or two, usually two 
officers, and marched the poor prisoners to the fatal 
spot and shot them to death or ended their existence 
by suspension from the gallows. The two prisoners 
who were shot a few hours after we entered the prison 
were named Jerome B. Poole and Calvin Harbaugh. 
Being Unionists, they refused to take the arms offered 
them, when they were arrested and brought in as 
conscripts. Poole was from Brazella, and Harbaugh 



1 1 2 TUPELO. 

from Shuqualak, Noxubee Co., Miss. They were 
then suspended by the thumbs till they begged the 
officers to order them to be shot, as they preferred 
death to such excruciating torture. After the endur- 
ance of every refinement of cruel torture, they were at 
length brought to Tupelo, tried, and condemned to 
be shot to death. They inferred by a remark made 
by one of the officers who brought us into prison that 
I was a minister. Poole came to me and told me 
that they would be shot at sunset, and wished me to 
explain to Harbaugh more fully the way of salvation. 
He had tried to do so in a feeble way, but feared 
that he had not made it sufficiently plain to the mind 
of his friend. Harbaugh then asked me what he 
must do to be saved. I replied, "Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You 
must exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Come to Jesus 
just as you are, not waiting to cleanse your soul from 
one dark blot. Do not tarry till you are better. 
Away from Christ you will only become more guilty. 
Come with all your guilt and fear oppressed, and say 
God be merciful to me a sinner. Ask him to receive 
you and forgive you, and adopt you into his family 
and make you one of his dear children by adopting 
love and grace for Christ's sake." 

Harbaugh asked, " What is faith in Jesus Christ? " 
" Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby 
we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as 
he is offered to us in the gospel." 

"But Poole says I must be born again — that T 
must have a change of heart." 



TUPELO. 113 

"The bible tells us that whosoever believeth that 
Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. Ye are all the 
children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. There- 
fore if a man be in Christ he is a new creature. He 
is born again. And as Moses lifted up the serpent 
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be 
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish but have eternal life. Whosoever believeth 
then has eternal life, and whosoever has eternal life 
surely sees and enters the kingdom of God, so that 
whosoever believeth is born again. For God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish 
but have everlasting life. God loved and gave, we 
believe and have, and this is all of it to attain life 
and experience the new birth." 

"I do believe on Jesus Christ and accept him as 
my Savior. I have never been baptized. Will you 
baptize me? " 

"Yes, I will, gladly." 

Capt. Bruce asked one of the guards to call an of- 
ficer. When the officer came he sent a prisoner un- 
der guard for water. Harbaugh now told me that 
his father was a Baptist minister, and that he had 
taught him that the true scriptural mode of baptism 
was by immersion. An officer was called to whom 
the request was preferred that I should be allowed to 
immerse the prisoner in Old Town creek near by. 
Old Town creek is a tributary of the Tombigbee 
river. The officer returned stating that the military 
8 



114 TUPELO. 

authorities absolutely refused to grant this request, 
believing it a ruse to secure an opportunity to effect 
an escape. Harbaugh said that he would submit to 
baptism by pouring or sprinkling, though he did not 
believe it to be the scriptural mode. He trusted that 
the good Lord would look upon the sincerity of his 
intentions to obey his command, which he was doing 
to the extent of his ability and opportunity. He 
did not think the Lord would require an impossi- 
bility. 

In the presence of the prisoners and in the most 
solemn manner possible (the circumstances enhanced 
the solemnity), the ordinance was administered. 
Just at its close food prepared by the prisoners was 
brought and offered these men. They took it in 
their hands', but ere it was tasted the sun began to 
dip his disk beneath the western horizon, the 
dreaded squad appeared before the door. These men, 
putting away the food untasted, said, " We go to eat 
bread in the kingdom of God. Pray for us that we 
may have grace to deport ourselves with becoming 
dignity and propriety in our last moments. Fare- 
well till we meet before the great white throne. 
You will probably come soon, for our foes are cruel 
as the grave." 

The officers unlocked their gyves, led them out, 
and we saw them no more. A half dozen captured 
slaves seated in a corner of the prison, led by a 
young octoroon, sang some hymns. They called 
them spiritual songs. The following, to the tune, 



TUPELO. 115 

Old Folks at Home, was very melodiously and 
sweetly rendered : 

Our Father's Home. 

Far over Jordan's rolling river, 

Eternal day. 
There's where my eyes are turning ever, 

There's where the angels stay. 
All through this vale of sin and sorrow, 

Patient we roam, 
Still trusting for the happy morrow, 

Bright in our Father's home. 

Chorus. 
All our heavy load sits lighter 

Every storm we bide. 
Oh ! brothers, how the way grows brighter, 

Near to the Savior's side. 

Far from his tender arms benighted, 

Dark was our way. 
Still every precious promise lightened, 

Where could the spirit stay. 
Down at the foot of Calvary's mountain, 

Pilgrims we come, 
Oh, may we through that crimson fountain, 

Come to our Father's home. 
C horns. 

One lovely form among the sainted, 

Heaven within, 
Stands on my vision ever painted, 

Stretched on the cross for sin. 
When shall we hear his voice commanding, 

Come, higher, come, 
When in his golden courts be standing, 

With our beloved ones at home. • 

Chorus. 



116 TUPELO. 

The Southern Slave's Song. 

Oh, poor negro, he will go. 

Some one clay. 
Over the water and the snow, 

Far away. 
Over the mountain big and high, 

Some one day. 
To that country in the sky, 

Far away. 

Jesus, Massa, bring me home, 

Some one day. 
Then I'll live with the Holy One, 

Far away. 
Sin no more my heart make sore, 

Some one day. 
I praise my Jesus evermore, 

Far away. 

Our privations were so great from a lack of good, 
wholesome food and pure water — for the scanty sup- 
ply of water allowed us was tepid and foul — and 
from a want of beds, cots, couches, or something bet- 
ter than a filthy floor whereon to sleep, that I re- 
solved upon an attempt to escape at the risk of my 
life. I felt sure that I could not long survive the 
horrors of this prison-pen. As soon as my arrest 
became known to the 32d Mississippi regiment, en- 
camped in the suburbs of Tupelo, the officers called 
upon me. Col. Mark Lowrev, Capt. L. A. Lowrey, 
the Col. 's brother, Major Arnold, and Adjutant Irion. 
This regiment was raised in Tishomingo Co. One 
<>f # its companies, the Zollicoffer Avengers, having 
been raised in Rienzi, where I had been for years 



TUPELO. 1 1 i 

the proprietor and president of the Rienzi Female 
College. The daughters of many of the officers of 
this regiment had been educated at this college dur- 
ing my connection with it. Owing me a debt of grati- 
tude as they professed, could I expect less than the 
manifestation of deep sympathy with me in my sad 
condition — confined in a gloomy dungeon, deprived 
of the comforts, yea, even the necessaries, of life, and 
menaced and insulted by the officers in whose power 
1 was? Some of these officers had publicly expresses I 
themselves under great obligations to me for the 
thorough moral, mental, and physical training their 
daughters had received while under my care. In 
proof of this I have their own statements published 
in the public journals of the day. Whatever may 
have been my hopes, they were doomed to disappoint- 
ment. These summer friends, so obsequious in my 
prosperity, conversed for a time upon indifferent top- 
ics, never alluding to my condition, and I did not 
obtrude it upon their attention, except that Capt. 
Lowrey, looking around upon the prisoners clanking 
their chains as they moved uneasily, trying to secure 
a less painful posture, said this is war — grim-visaged 
war with all its attendant horrors. When they left 
they said, " We will call soon again." I replied, 
" Do so, gentlemen, you will always find me athome," 
yet I was hoping they would not — my mind was 
bent upon and occupied with the high resolve of es- 
caping or dying in the attempt, and even then I was 
maturing a plan to compass that cud. 



118 TUPELO. 

A young gentleman and his sister, by virtue of a 
pass, entered our prison. They conversed with the 
prisoners freely. An officer escorted the young lady 
to the part of the prison which I occupied. She en- 
quired naively: "What is the charge against this 
prisoner? " The officer replied that I was an avowed 
Unionist. She said to me, "Are you a merchant?" 
I replied that I was a minister. 

"Of what church?" 

"Of the Presbyterian church." 

"We are Presbyterians," said she. 

She then made inquiries about Reverends Wm. A. 
Gray, of Ripley, Jno. H. Miller, of Pontotoc, Jas. 
Stafford, of Danville, Dr. E. T. Baird, of Crawfords- 
ville, J. N. Carothers, of Okolona, R. Henderson, of 
Danville, and others. While she conversed with me 
the officer visited another part of the prison. She 
then said taisez vouts, and slipped into my hand a 
note. She gave me her name as Miss Daisy Carson. 

The note was written with a pencil, and read : 
" We sympathize deeply with you. We will aid you 
in any way you may suggest. We live two miles 
irom Tupelo due [the cardinal point indi- 
cated was so defaced that it was illegible]. If you 
could reach our house you would find all possible 
assistance. We are true blue. Ambrose Kavanaugh 
will visit the prison soon, if he can secure a pass. 
Ernest Travis, of Verona, informed us of your im- 
prisonment. I met you at Mr. Price's, in Ripley, 
but you may not remember me. My friend, Miss 



TUPELO. 11!' 

Jane Kendrick, often speak- of you. Chew and swal- 
low this as soon as you have read it. I take a great 
risk in this matter, but I am of a romantic turn and 
love adventure. After the war and the triumph of 
the government it will be pleasant to recount our ex- 
ploits in behalf of the suffering patriots. Taisez vous. 
Voire amie. 

"Charlotte Cokday, 
"My nom de guerre. 
" P. S. — Prof. Yarbrough lodged with us one 
night. We sincerely hope that he has safely reached 
his destination ere this. Do not become dispirited, 
you have hosts of friends and are doubtless under the 
kind protecting care of Jesus. 

" 'Tis late before 
The brave despair. 

Stand 
Firm for your country, 

It were a noble life, 
To be found dead embracing her. 

There is strength, 
Deep bedded in our hearts, of which we reck 
But little. 

"Very respectfully, 

" C. C." 

A prisoner came to me and said, "Chaplain, 1 
have been informed that I will be shot to-morrow, 
and I am not prepared to die." 

"What Mas your offense? " 

" 1 was a Unionist — was forced into the army. J 
deserted, they followed me with blood-hounds. When 



1 'JO TUPELO. 

the hounds came near I got my back against a tree, 
and with a knotty club of pecan wood I killed six 
hounds. The cavalry came up and fired upon me. I 
fell, wounded in the head and left arm. The wounds 
Avere not very severe. They brought me to Tupelo, 
and I had my trial yesterday by court-martial. My 
captain, who just now left, informed me that on to- 
morrow I would be shot as a deserter." 

" What is your name?" 

"My name is John R. Witherspoon. I was born 
in Sumter, South Carolina, but have lived in Bolivar, 
Tennessee, for ten years. I have a wife and seven 
children, six are girls. The baby, John R. Wither- 
spoon, Jr., is my only boy. My oldest daughter, 
Gertrude Maud, named for her mother, is fifteen 
years old. She is a good scholar, has a talent for 
music and painting. All my children are devotedly 
attached to their parents. What will become of 
them God only knows. I own one hundred acres of 
land in McNairy Co., Tennessee. My wife's mother 
gave her a colored girl. I am a poor man and will 
leave my family dependent, I am a member of the 
Presbyterian church, but have been living in the neg- 
lect of duty for some time, and now I must die 
unprepared." 

" What caused your neglect ? " 

" I became a candidate for office, and as it was cus- 
tomary to treat a great deal when canvassing the dis- 
trict, I did so. I formed convivial habits that were 
disastrous to devotional duties. I became negligent 



TUPELO. 1-1 

and absented myself from the church. My wife and 
family are faithful, and many prayers are sent up to 
heaven in my behalf. O, if I were rescued from this 
impending doom I would, by the grace of God, no 
longer neglect duty." 

I pointed him as well as I could to the Lamb of 
God that taketh away the sin of the world. We 
went up into a corner of the prison and knelt down. 
I prayed God to heal his back-sliding and restore to 
him the joy of His salvation, then asked him to offer 
up a prayer in his own behalf. He did so in lan- 
guage and with an unction that surprised me. At 
the close he earnestly implored God to spare his life 
for the sake of his dear family. He asked to be 
longer spared that he might atone in some degree for 
his past remissness in duty by devoting all the days 
of his allotted time to faithful service in his heavenly 
father's vineyard. I asked him if he entertained any 
hope. He replied that he did, and wished he could 
live to test its genuineness, but he had some fear. 

And now came still evening on. Mr. Witherspoon 
volunteered to go for water. He took two buckets, 
one in each hand. Two guards accompanied him, 
one on each side. He drew the Mater and started 
back. It was now dark ; when he reached a clurap 
of bushes he dropped one bucket and raising the other 
he dashed it in the faces of the guards, and sprang 
for the bushes. The guards speedily brought their 
muskets to bear, fired in the direction of the fugitive, 
and instead of pursuing at once, ran to the tents of 



122 TUPELO. 

some officers and gave the alarm. The whole camp 
was soon intensely excited and hundreds joined in 
the pursuit. A cry would be heard, " Here he goes." 
A few minutes later in an opposite direction the same 
cry would be-taken up. Unionists impressed into 
the service did this to contribute to the escape of the 
prisoner. He made good his escape, and succeeded 
after some time in getting his family conveyed to the 
North, through the kindness of Major General Hatch. 
An account of his escape has been published. He 
encountered much difficulty in avoiding the blood- 
hounds. At one time he heard their howling in his 
rear, and not more than a mile distant. He came to a 
field in which cattle were grazing. He sprang upon 
the back of an ox, and using a goad he compelled 
the ox to carry him across the field in a direction that 
broke the trail and baffled pursuit. 

His final adventure, his last peril before his safety 
was insured, may be worth narrating. One day as 
he lay concealed in a ditch he heard in the remote dis- 
tance in the direction whence he came the faint howl- 
ing of hounds. The sound became more and more 
distinct, till he became convinced that they were pur- 
suing him and had found his track. He arose from his 
moist bed, and hastened onward with all the speed his 
enfeebled condition would permit. He had not gone 
far till he descried another fugitive a short distance 
in advance. He called upon him to halt. The man 
obeyed. He gave his name as John Denver. The 
vigilantes of the vendetta, as they called themselves, 



TUPELO. 1 23 

had attacked his house last night. He had defended 
himself. They fired through a window, wounded 
him and killed his little daughter Nellie. He rushed 
out, slew the murderer of his child, and wounded two 
others. They beat a hasty retreat. He had lost an 
ear, and had a flesh wound in the left thigh which 
made travel difficult. He was on his way to Corinth 
to get assistance from the Federal commander, so that 
he and his family might go North. The howling of 
the hounds indicated to him that the vigilantes had 
been reinforced and were in pursuit of him. As rap- 
idly as possible these panting fugitives made their 
May toward Corinth. The hounds gained upon them. 
Mr. Denver had two revolvers. He gave his com- 
panion one of them, and they both resolved to sell 
their lives as dearly as possible. The hounds were 
but a mile distant, when, to their joy, they suddenly 
met a regiment of Federal cavalry on a scouting ex- 
pedition. They as quickly as possible explained the 
situation of affairs. The colonel ordered the regiment 
to fall back out of sight. He ordered a company to 
dismount and conceal themselves in the chaparral, he 
sending their horses back. He requested Witherspoon 
and Denver to climb two small trees and await their 
pursuers. He then joined the company in ambush. 
When the pursuers came up they ordered the fugitives 
to come down from the trees. There were twenty of 
the vigilantes. They asked Witherspoon who he 
was. He replied, " A prisoner from Tupelo, escap- 
ing to the Federal lines." After a few moments' 



124 TUPELO. 

consultation, they told these men that they had but 
five minutes to live, and if they wished to say their 
prayers they might spend the time in that way. They 
had but one rope, which they had brought to use in 
hanging Denver, but one of their number %rnished 
a halter, taking it from his horse's neck. Two men 
approached, threw the nooses over the heads of their 
victims and adjusted them. They then selected two 
lateral limbs projecting from a tree near by, threw 
the ends of the ropes over them and were awaiting 
the order of Jack Clinkskales, their leader, to con- 
summate their murderous purpose, when a volley from 
the ambushed Federal troopers made sixteen of them 
bite the dust. The four survivors rushed to their 
horses, but a second volley caused them to fall bereft 
of life. The bodies were scrutinized closely to be sure 
that life was extinct. They were then piled up in 
the chaparral, and the hounds killed. Upon the re- 
turn of the regiment a few hours after a drove of wild 
hogs were found feeding upon them. Thus perished 
a band of desperadoes not fit to live, less fit to die. 
Mr. Denver's family were brought into Corinth in 
an ambulance, and soon after came North to Evans- 
villc, Indiana. Mr. Denver enlisted in the Federal 
army, and did effective service in his country's cause. 
Mr. Witherspoon also enlisted in the Federal service, 
lb' died on the field of honor. He Mas instantly 
killed on the 1st day of the battle of Gettysburg. 
Mrs. Witherspoon thus wrote me : 



TUPELO. 1 25 

" My dear husband often spoke of you, and had 
hoped to meet you again, but Providence otherwise 
ordered it. His death is a sad bereavement to me 
and the dear children. But God makes no mistakes, 
and I bow submissively to His will. He has prom- 
ised to be the husband of the widow and the father 
of the fatherless. I trust implicitly in the promises 
of a covenant-keeping God. The tone of my dear 
husband's piety was very different after his impris- 
onment in Tupelo. He seemed to think that he could 
not do too much to show his gratitude to the God 
who in his providence delivered him from the execu- 
tion of the death sentence already pronounced by the 
court-martial, and which only lacked a few hours of 
fulfillment at the time of his escape. Pray for me 
and my dear children, that we may be enabled to 
bear with becoming resignation this afflictive dispen- 
sation of Divine Providence, and that it may be sanc- 
tified to the highest and holiest interests of our souls, 
work in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and 
while looking to things unseen and above a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We will, 
Providence permitting, move soon to Cincinnati. 
My daughter Gertrude has secured a position as teacher 
in one of the public schools of that city. We would 
be happy to have you visit us at your earliest, con- 
venience. 

Your friend, 

Mils. G. M. WlTHEESPOON. 



1 26 TUPELO. 



OLD PILGARLIC. 

An elderly gentleman was ushered into prison on 
the morning of the 2d of July, 1862. He seemed 
anxious to convince the officer who accompanied the 
guard that he was mistaken in regard to some 
abstruse question. As soon as the officer left, I ap- 
proached the prisoner, and after gaining his confi- 
dence, drew from him his sad history. His true 
name Mas Prof. Lorimer Vickroy Yarbrough, a na- 
tive of Fincastle, Va. He had resided in Austin, 
Texas, and Xew Orleans, La. He loved the old 
flag, and resolved to reach the North, in company 
with his son Oscar. By some means suspicion was 
aroused, and they were taken from the steamboat at 
Vicksbnrg, Miss., and thrown into prison, where 
they languished for months. At length, through the 
aid of Unionist friends they escaped from prison, and 
in due time from the city of Vicksburg. 

Prof. Yarbrough had a friend named Leroy 
Paden, living in Hazelhnrst, Miss., upon whom he 
could depend for aid. He also held a note overdue for 
two thousand dollars, upon a gentleman who resided 
in Brookhaven, in Lincoln county, Miss. Could he 
collect the money due on this note it would assist him 
materially in making his way to the North. On 
the border of Copiah county, they were arrested by a 
committee of vigilantes, and thrown into an extcm- 
porized prison. Here they were immured six weeks 
and fed on corn bread and water. At length, Oscar 



TUPELO. 127 

enlisted in a company bound for the scat of war in 
Virginia, with the intention of deserting upon the 
first favorable opportunity. His father was still held 
a prisoner. Now malarial fever of a malignant 
type supervened. During its progress reason left ncr 
throne, but a naturally vigorous constitution tri- 
umphed, and the prisoner began to convalesce. 
Hearing the attendants say he had known nothing 
for three weeks, Prof. Yarbrough resolved upon a 
ruse which he hoped would give him an opportunity 
to escape. He would, by the use of incoherent ex- 
pressions and singular conduct, feign madness. In 
the course of time, health returned, and the military 
authorities sent him to Gen. Beauregard at Tupelo. 
Gen. Beauregard believed him to be a malingerer, 
and sent for two alienists to decide upon his sanity. 
On the 12th of June, 1862, the commission to deter- 
mine the sanity of the prisoner convened. A num- 
ber of officers of high rank were present. 

I will give the account of the examination in 
Yarbrough's language : 

" I was brought in under guard, a seat furnished 
me, and the farce commenced. 

" Gen. Beauregard enquired, ' AVhat is your name?' 

" ' My name, Capting, air old Pilgarlic.' 

" Gen. B.— 'AVhatdoes that mean?' 

" ' It means old Baldhead. You see, Capting, I 
hain't got no har on the top of my head. I was 
born so, and when some growed on, a nigger girl 
spilled some rusma on my crown, and I hain't lied 
no har sence.' 



1 28 TUPELO. 

" Gen. B. — ' Well, old Pilgarlic, you are iu r 
bad fix.' 

" ' Yes, Capting, and ef I hed as soft a skull t* 
sum of these here young chaps, I could raze har to 
sell.' 

"Gen. B. — ' Where do you live'?' 

" ' I live in a cabin with a stick chinily, in Ar 
kansaw.' 

" Gen. B. — ' Does your chimney draw well?' 

"Yes, Capting, it draws the 'tention of every fool 
that passes on that trail.' 

" Gen. B. — ' Are you a married man '.' ' 

" ' Not now, 1 ain't, but I spect to be before long, 
Pur yousee, Capting, I hev the refusal of mor'n half 
a dozen widders.' 

"Gen. B. — ' Where did you say you were from?' 

"'From every place but this, an' ef you'll jis send 
them fellers away with the guns an' bayonets I'll be 
away from this in a giffy, that is, providin' you takes 
this jewelry off'n my legs an' wrists.' 

" Gen. B. — ' Pilgarlic, what's your opinion about 
this \var?' 

" ' I thinks, Capting, that no Southerner ort to 
fight agin liberty, nor no Yankee agin his country.' 

" Gen. B. — ' Where's your son ? ' ' 

"'Well, Capting, I duzzent know. He give me 
the slip. I spec he went off ter the war.' 

"Gen. B. — 'Well, sir, your son attempted to 
desert to the enemy, and he now lies in prison with 
a hall and chain attached to his ankle.' 



TUPELO. l-2i> 

"I then commenced to sing as loudly as I could: 

Spread all her canvas to the breeze, 

Set every threadbare sail, 
And give her to the god of storms, 

The lightning and the gale. 

"The General ordered me to cease. I heeded him 
not, and sang : 

When a deed is done for freedom, 

Through the broad earth's aching breast 
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on 

From east to west; 
And the slave, where'er he cowers, ' 

Feels the soul within him climb 
To the awful verge of manhood, 

As the energy sublime, 
Of a century bursts full blossomed 

On the stormy stem of time. 

"The alienists felt my pulse and inserted a ther- 
mometer into my mouth, which I crushed between 
my teeth. I then sang, or rather shouted vocifer- 
ously : 

Oh ! for an hour of youthful joy, 
Give me back my twentieth spring, 

I'd rather laugh a bright-haired boy, 
Than reign a gray-haired king. 

'• At this juncture Gen. Beauregard ordered the 
guards to make me hush. I then yelled, for it eoidd 
not be called sino-ino; : 

Prndent on the council train, 

Dauntless on the battle plain, 
Keady at the country's need 

For her glorious cause to bleed. 



13() TUPELO. 

" By the general's order the guards bound and 
gagged me. The alienists differed in opinion as to my 
sanity. One regarded me as a malingerer, the other 
declared that T was in a state of mental aberration 
which bid fair to culminate in incurable insanity. I 
was confined under guard in a room in a hotel in Tu- 
pelo till yesterday, when I was incarcerated in this 
dungeon." 

Gen. Beauregard was now superseded by Gen. 
Braxton Bragg. Gen. Bragg had been but a short 
time in supreme command when lie reviewed the testi- 
mony in the case of Prof. Yarbrough. On the 11th 
of July, 1862, the order came for his execution. He 
was taken from our prison to the fatal spot where so 
many brave Unionists had ended their lives. His 
request that they would not blindfold him was granted. 
He faced the muskets with an unblanched counte- 
nance. A volley rang out upon the evening air, and 
the professor fell pierced by the bullets of the squad. 
When his struggles ceased and he was pronounced 
dead by the sergeant, the corpse was given into the 
custody of Billingsly and Kaiser, conscripts, from 
near Tallaloosa, Miss., and relatives, they claimed, of 
the professor. They bore the body tenderly to a 
house in the suburbs of Tupelo. These men were 
Unionists, and had been forced into the Confederate 
service. This family, whose name was Montreal, 
were pronounced Unionists. When the putative 
corpse was laid upon the couch prepared for its re- 
ception, an examination revealed that one ball had 



TUPELO. 131 

shattered the left arm so that amputation would have 
been required had no other wound caused death. A 
ball had glanced from the ribs, another ball had 
passed through his clothing. The limbs had not as- 
sumed rigidity, and it was evident that the professor 
was not dead, but only in a state of syncope. From 
this condition lie slowly rallied. Billingsly under- 
stood surgery, and with the aid of some Unionist 
neighbors Prof. Yarbrough's arm was amputated, and 
upon his recovery, which was rapid, he was conducted 
by night from one Union neighborhood to another. 
ii!l at length he reached La Grange, Tenn., which 
was in the possession of the Federal troops. Among 
the first to visit him were his son Oscar, now a cap- 
tain of a company in a Federal regiment, and a 
nephew, Charles Barry, formerly of D'Arbonne, La., 
now an officer in the Union army, Gen. Beauregard's 
statement in regard to the capture of Oscar Yar- 
brough being false. 

The following letter will unfold some of the more 
thrilling incidents of his final escape: 
Rev. John II Aughey: 

Dear Friend — Having learned through John 
H. Stanton that you are chaplain of Gen. Benjamin 
Grierson's old regiment, the Gtli 111. cavalry, I send 
you by him this short letter. Please inform me how 
you escaped from Tupelo. I heard Gen. Bragg tell 
Major Grosvenor, when he tried to say something in 
your defense, that you would be hanged on Tuesdav 
of the next week as sure as there was a God in heaven. 



132 TUPELO. 

He said you deserved to suffer a hundred deaths for 
your disloyal speeches and your many treasonable 
acts. That there was a ghost of a chance for you 
seemed incredible, chained as you were, and so vigi- 
lantly guarded, far away from the Federal lines and 
surrounded by the great rebel army. Do write me 
at once and tell me all about your escape. It must 
have been well-nigh miraculous. The first intima- 
tion I had of your eseape was an extract from the 
Xew York Tribune of an address delivered by you 
in Cooper Institute in that city, from which I learned 
thai you had succeeded in effecting an escape, but the 
particulars were not given. 

After I was able to travel I was conducted from 
one neighborhood to another, till at length I reached 
the Federal lines. At one time we thought it best to 
travel in daylight. There were ten of us in company, 
eight of us Unionists endeavoring to reach the Fed- 
eral lines Two were guides, Paden Pickens and 
Paul Paden. We called at the house of a widow 
named Mrs. Violetta Markle. Her husband had 
been tried by a vigilance committee and shot, April 
10, 18G1, as a Unionist. We gave her the counter- 
sign taisez vous. She replied oui, oui, all right, and 
then after preparing a meal for us, she informed us 
that we were near a rebel camp, and advised us 
to take the route traveled by the guide, Solomon 
Frierson, who had called at her house yesterday on 
his return from a trip to the Federal lines, to which 
lie had conveyed twenty Unionists from Oktibbeha 



TUPELO. 133 

and Pontotoc counties. After leaving Mrs. Markle's, 
Pickens climbed a tree and made an observation of 
the surrounding country. Two rebel encampments 
were visible, one to the north-cast, another to the 
north-west. He thought that we might pass between 
them without much danger. We started on our way. 
At one point it became necessary to travel on a road 
a short distance so as to obviate the necessity of as- 
cending a lofty and precipitous hill. We had just 
entered upon the road when we saw a company of 
rebel cavalry about half a mile distant. They had 
just appeared on the summit of a lull behind which 
they had been concealed from view. They descried 
us, and putting spurs to their horses came rapidly 
toward us. AY e gave up all for lost, and were about 
to break for the woods, when Paden, taking ropes 
from his pockets, told Bryson and Birney to put 
their hands behind them, when ho. securely bound 
them with the ropes. As soon as the cavalry reached 
us we went to one side of the road to let them pass. 
The captain, whose name was Pender, wished to 
know what this cavalcade meant. Paden replied 
that they had in charge these two tories, and were 
taking them to camp to surrender them to the general 
in command, that they might get their just deserts. 
"Good," said the captain, "I'll go back with you. 
Sergeant Buford, take command, and go on ; I'll go 
back to camp with these men.'' 

On the way back Paden proposed to the captain 
that we try these men now, and if the}* are found 



i:;i tupelo. 

guilty shoot them. Capt. Pender agreed to this at 
once. He said that was the object of his expedition 
at this time — to quell the disaffected traitors to the 
Confederacy. He declared that it was he that had 
ordered the shooting of ten tory devils in the Pop- 
lar Springs neighborhood, led by one Methuselah 
Knight, as arrant a tory as ever lived. We then left 
the road, and coming to a copse of dwarf tamaracks, 
we held a trial, and upon their own confession con- 
victed Bryson and Birney of treason against the 
Confederate States of America. Paden and Pickens 
asked the privilege of shooting the prisoners. This 
Capt. Pender granted. Upon the pretense that they 
had no pistols, Pender drew his pistols from their 
holsters and presented them to Paden. Paden 
handed one to Pickens. The prisoners were then 
bound to two saplings. Paden asked Pender to 
give the command. The captain told the prisoners 
that, in compassion to their souls, he would grant 
them five minutes to make their peace with God. 

Birney said, " Captain, we have long ago made our 
peace with our God. Have you done the same? " 
Pender replied, " I have killed Union traitors 
enough to save me." 

Pie then gave the command, "Make ready, take 
aim, FIRE. Pickens and Paden fired simultane- 
ously, but not at the prisoners. Pender fell pierced 
by two balls, and in five minutes his soul had taken 
its flight to the bar of God. As Pender fell he said, 
"D — n the traitors," and without uttering another 



TUPELO. 135 

word his spirit left its clay tenement. It became 
necessary to kill the horse, as his presence would en- 
danger our safety. Bryson and Birney were un- 
bound, and we pursued our journey rejoicing, hav- 
ing Pender where he fell. Without further incident 
of importance we reached the Union lines, and 
received a cordial welcome. 

Let me hear from you at your very earliest con- 
venience. 

Yours truly, 

L. A". Yarbrough, 
Alias, Old Pilgarlic. 

Having determined to attempt an escape at all 
hazards, I thought it would be well to secure a 
companion who would undertake with me the peril- 
ous adventure. Two are better than one. After 
due deliberation, I selected Richard Malone, his 
piercing eye and his intellectual physiognomy led me 
to believe that if he should consent to make the 
attempt with me, our prospect for success would be 
enhanced. Upon broaching the matter to him, lie 
drew from his pocket a paper containing the proper 
route to pursue, mapped out clearly. A Unionist 
friend had covertly conveyed it to him. Gray Wal- 
ton was his name. For some days Malone had 
resolved to escape or perish in the attempt. With 
all the ardor imparted by a new born hope, we en- 
tered upon the formation of a plan of escape. We 
went out now upon every possible pretext. We no 
longer tried to avoid the guard that came to obta'n 



136 TUPELO. 

detachments of prisoners to do servile labor. We 
were the first to present ourselves, our object being to 
reconnoitre, in order to learn where guards were 
stationed, so as to determine the best method of escap- 
ing through the town after leaving the prison, and 
of passing through the great army that environed us. 
During the day we made these observations, that two 
guards stationed on the western enclosure attached to 
the prison were very communicative and very ver- 
dant, that after relief they would come on duty 
again at midnight, that there was a building on the 
south side of the prison, sixteen feet distant from it, 
which extended beyond our prison, and beyond the 
enclosure in the rear of the prison in which the 
guards were stationed. We learned that the moon 
would set about 11 p.m., and we ascertained that 
there were no guards upon the south side of the 
prison during the day. I learned this by vol- 
unteering to go for water. Two guards accom- 
panied me ; as I neared the prison, having drawn 
the soft hat 1 was wearing down pretty well, I 
peered from underit and scanned the surroundings as 
closely as possible, observing where every vidette 
was stationed, and gaining by close scrutiny all possi- 
ble information. We learned that one of the planks 
in the floor was in a condition to be readily removed. 
The building was placed on blocks, and the planks 
were nailed on perpendicularly, and the ragged edges 
did not in some places reach the ground. Apertures 
were thus formed by which we hoped, if once under 



TUPELO. 137 

the prison, ogress might be secured. We then hoped 
to reach the building which was about sixteen feet 
distant, on the south side, and by crawling along 
close to it pass the enclosure on the western end of 
our prison in which the guards were stationed. 
Trover Anderson, and De'Grummond, Federal 
prisoners, assisted byHermon Bonar, Prince Shelby, 
and Gaither Breckenridge, Unionists, managed to 
raise the plank from the floor and replace it loosely, 
so that it could be removed at the opportune moment. 
Benjamin Clarke came to me and said, " Take me 
along Avith you." I referred him to Malone, who re- 
fused. Clarke came back, and told me that Malone 
would not consent, and begged me to try to prevail 
upon Malone to agree to take him with us. Said 
he, " I have been tried and condemned, and should I 
be shot my poor wife and eight children will perish." 
I went to Malone and asked him to consent to take 
Clarke along. Said he, " No, Clarke has not nerve 
sufficient to face the glittering bayonet, which we 
may have to do, nor has he the tact necessary to make 
his way through this great army without detection. 
He would do something that would betray us, not 
intentionally, of course." As Malone was inexorable, 
I told Clarke that he and Robinson must come hall' 
an hour alter us. This they failed to do. They 
dared not make the attempt, which was indeed peril- 
ous. This was July 4, 1862. We improvised a 
4th of July celebration. I was the orator of the 
day, and delivered a eulogy of our patriot fathers 



138 TUPELO. 

who had fought and bled to secure our country's 
liberty. 

We may say of these noble men as was said of the 
cathedral builder : 

The hand that rounded Peter's dome, 
And groined the aisles of Ancient Pome, 
Wrought -with a sad sincerity; 
Himself from God he could not free, 
He builded better than he knew — 
The conscious stone to beauty grew. 

Yes, they builded better than they knew. They 
erected a temple of freedom which we trust shall be 
lasting as time. No weapon formed against it shall 
prosper. In the providence of God no parricidal 
hand shall be permitted to succeed in overthrowing 
this grand edifice, this glorious temple of our coun- 
try's liberties. Let us endeavor to be worthy sons of 
these noble sires, imitate their virtues, prize the herit- 
age bequeathed to us by them, and preserve it unim- 
paired as a blessing to our posterity forever. 

Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said. 
This is my own, my native land, 
Whose heart hath ne'er within him hurned; 
As home his footsteps he has turned 
From wandering on a foreign strand ? 
If such there be, go mark him well, 
For him no minstrel raptures swell. 
High though his titles, proud his name, 
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; 
Despite these titles, power, and pelf, 
The wretch concentered all in self. 



TUPELO. 139 

Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 

And doubly (lying shall go clown 

To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 

Unwept, unhouored, aud unsung. 

Perish the hand that with parricidal intent would 
apply the torch of the incendiary to the fair fabric 
erected at so great a cost by our revered ancestors. 

Ah, never shall the land forget 

How gushed the life-blood of the brave, 

Gushed warm with hope aud courage yet 
Upon the soil they fought to save. 

Oh, is there not some chosen curse, 
Some hidden thunder in the store of heaven 
Red with uncommon wrath to blast the man 
Who would compass our loved country's ruin ? 

A dishonored grave and a hell of torment will be 
the final fate of every traitor, and while he lives 
remorse will haunt the impious wretch. 

Not sharp revenge, nor hell itself can find 

A fiercer torment than a guilty mind, 

Which, day and night, doth dreadfully accuse, 

Condemns the wretch, and still the charge renews. 

Such be the doom of all traitors. May Jehovah, 
God of nations, blast all treasonable designs against 
the best of governments, a government founded upon 
justice and equity, and promotive of all the holiest 
interests dear to the heart of every true patriot, and 
philanthropist, and only subversive of despotic prin- 
ciples which would impair human rights and over- 
throw constitutional liberty. 



140 TUPELO. 

Yes, my native land, I love thee, 
All thy scenes I love full well. — 
Land of every land the pride. 

It is your high prerogative and mine to be able to 
say, I am an American citizen. 

Our glorious government will live and flourish and 
dispense innumerable blessings broadcast over a smil- 
ing laud long after treason has been consigned to an 
infamous and gory grave. 

We may noi live to see this prediction verified, but 

" It is sweet to die for our country," 

and to know that although we perish as patriot mar- 
tyrs, our children and the millions yet unborn who 
are to come into the possession of this glorious herit- 
age, will enjoy during the coming cycles of the future 
the perennial sweets of liberty, equality, and frater- 
nity. May God speed the day when the enemies of 
our Lord and of our country's liberty shall be over- 
thrown. 

I see officers approaching who may not be able to 
appreciate and approve sentiments such as I am 
enunciating. Permit me, therefore, to close some- 
what abruptly with this sentiment : 

( hir Banner: Now wave ili strength its pennons fair, 

In peerless grandeur round the world, 
Proclaiming far that freemen dare 

Defend the right with flag unfurled. 

We then sang witli a will, 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liherty,etc. 



TUPELO. 141 

J. A. II. Spear, of Ellisville, 111., or Troyer An- 
derson, sang a patriotic song. I remember hut one 
couplet : 

We've lofty hills and lovely vales, 
And streams that roll to either sea. 

It was well received. Sonic of the Federal pris- 
oners started, 

Rally round the flag, boys, 

Rally once again, 

Shouting the battle cry of freedom. 

The officers who had entered, now in great anger 
forbade any further patriotic demonstration. They 
carried off our flag which we had improvised, and 
told the guards to inform them if we disobeyed their 
orders. 

At four o'clock p.m., our plan was fully matured. 
At midnight (the moon having set and the verdant 
guards being on duty) we would raise the plank, get- 
under the floor, and, myself in advance, make our 
exit through one of the apertures upon the south side 
of the jail, then crawl to the building some ixteen 
feet distant, and thence continue crawling close to the 
building till we had passed the sentinels in the west- 
ern enclosure, then rise and make our way as 
cautiously as possible to a point in a corn-field in 
view from the prison, and where was a garment sus- 
pended from a fence post. The one who arrived 
first must await the other. A signal was agreed 
upon to prevent mistake. The signal was to place 
the arms akimbo. The countersign, taisez vous, the 



142 TUPELO. 

response, oui, oui, (pro.) we, we. If the guards or- 
dered us to halt we resolved to risk their fire, for our 
firm resolve was liberty or death. 

As soon as the prisoners learned that I was a minis- 
ter, they with entire unanimity and great cordiality 
chose Die chaplain, and I preached to them every even- 
ing as long as I remained with them. Night drew on 
apace. Thick darkness settled upon prison, camp, and 
town. Murky clouds o'erspread the sky and obscured 
the stars as we partook of our scanty allowance of 
corn-bread and water — foul, tepid water. I took this 
meal with the Federal prisoners who were tempora- 
rily incarcerated till after some formalities they would 
be sent to prison at Camp Oglethorpe, Macon, 
Ga., and other places. Their names were Jesse L. 
McHatton, Co. H, 59th 111. Vols., J. A. H. Spear, 
Ellisville, Fulton Co., 111., Brocket and Benedict, 
35th Reg. 111. Vol. Inft., Sullivan, Howell Trog- 
don, of St. Louis, Mo., M. Trover Anderson, Fos- 
ter, Lowery, and a German, who went by the name 
of Charlie, who wore a saddler's knife sewed on his 
coat sleeve, Wm. Soper, Co. D, 22d Reg. Ind. Vol. 
Inft., and DeGrummond, of Galesburg, 111. The 
breeches I wore were light colored. McHatton ex- 
changed a pair of brown colored for mine, so that I 
might better evade the guards. 

About ten o'clock Malone raised the plank, and I 
went under to reconnoitre. I remained under the 
floor about ten minutes, having learned that there 
were no guards patroling the south side of the 



TUPELO. 143 

prison, :i- we feared might be the case after night. I 
had learned by observation, when returning; with 
water, that there were none during the day. Just at 
the noon of night we heard the relief called. Malone 
and I tried to find the prisoners who were to raise 
the plank, but not being able readily to do so we 
raised the plank ourselves, and both succeeded in 
getting under without much difficulty. Malone hav- 

© CD * 

ing gotten under first was compelled, contrary to our 
arrangements, to take the lead. As he was passing- 
through the aperture he made considerable noise. I 
patted him upon the back to indicate silence and 
warn him of danger. He reached back, gave my 
hand a warm pressure to assure me that all was right, 
and passed out. I followed. I heard Malone m 
advance of me, but it was so dark that I could not 
see him. As I reached the point opposite the senti- 
nels in the rear, one of them, apparently on the 
alert, and startled by the noise, came to the side of 
the enclosure nearest me, and leaning over peered 
into the darkness. He remained a considerable time 
in that inquisitive attitude. I remained very quiet. 
At length he walked to the door and looked into the 
prison. I moved on as noiselessly as possible, pass- 
ing all the sentinels. It required great presence of 
mind and vigilant care to pass them without at- 
tracting attention or exciting their suspicion. I 
reached the pre-arranged place of meeting, but Ma- 
lone was nowhere to be found. I gave the pre- 
concerted signals, but they elicited no response. 



1 44 TUPELO. 

Sonic mistake had been made, and after waiting a 
long time I was compelled to set out alone. Not 
being able to rejoin my friend, I regarded as a great 
misfortune. He had the chart to guide us, and after 
reaching a point fifteen miles north-west of Tupelo 
he would be familiar with the topography and 
geography of the country. I had frequently passed 
through Tupelo in the cars, but knew but little of 
the country off the railroad through which I must 
pass. Somewhat depressed in spirits by the loss of 
my compagnon de voyage, I resolved to reach my 
family by the safest and most practicable route. I 
feared the hounds and the cavalry which would 
scour the country in search of us as soon as our es- 
cape became known. I was still in the very midst of 
the great rebel army, and found great difficulty in 
avoiding the videttes that seemed to be well-nigh 
omnipresent. I soon found that day was brighten- 
ing in the east. I felt glad to think that I was 
no longer in the gloomy prison. I could say with 
the Psalmist, " I am escaped as a bird out of the 
snare of the fowler. The snare is broken and 
I am escaped. God hath delivered me out of the 
hand of my enemy." I looked to the east, and lo! 
the orb of day was peering above the horizon. I 
must find a place to hide. I speedily discovered a 
small but dense thicket amid a grove of tupelo trees. 
This grove gave name to the town of Tupelo. I 
secreted myself as covertly as possible, A tree with 
low branches was near; I would ascend this if the 



TUPELO. 1 4o 

hounds should discover my track. After the excite- 
ment and consequent mental strain, I tried to woo 
tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep, and had 
partially succeeded, when the noise and horrid din of 
the great encampment sounding in my ears startled 
me, and drove far hence the winged Somnus. Son:) 
many soldiers passed and repassed me. I was still 
in the very midst of the great army, and liable to 
discovery at any moment. I broke off twigs and 
covered myself with leaves and branches of the un- 
derbrush surrounding me. I was within thirty 
yards of Old Town creek, an affluent of the Tombig- 
bce river, or rather one of the creeks forming the 
Tombigbee. The soldiers had found a suitable pool 
for bathing, and they passed and repassed all day ; 
on one side their path or trail ran onlv six or eight 
feet distant, on the other the path was but fifteen or 
twenty feet distant from my lair. About nine o'clock 
A.M. I heard the booming of cannon all around 
me, proceeding from the various encampments. The 
passing soldiers, whose lowest tones were distinctly 
audible, said that the artillerists were firing salutes in 
honor of a great victory obtained over General Mc- 
Clellan in the peninsula of Virginia. According to 
their statements, his whole army, after a succession 
of losses during eight days' continuous fighting, had 
been completely annihilated at a place named Mal- 
vern, and they were cpiite sure that Stonewall Jack- 
son would be in Washington City within a week. 
This sad news depressed me more by far than the 
10 



141) TUPELO. 

thought of my own condition. The hours dragged 
heavily. At one time two soldiers came within two 
feet of me in search of blackberries. I feared that 
one of them would tread upon my feet as they passed 
out of the copse, but he did not, although he must 
have missed stepping upon my feet by but a few 
inches. About noon, judging from the vertical rays 
of the sun, two soldiers sat down at the point closest 
to me on the nearer path. They were almost in jux- 
taposition. Their lowest tones were frightfully 
audible. One of them informed his companion that 
he had been in Tupelo in the morning, and that two 
prisoners had broke jail. They were Parson Aughey 
and Dick Malone. He said a big reward was offered 
fur bringin' 'em in dead or alive. He said: " I seed 
the cavalry start after 'em with two all-fired big 
packs of dogs. One pack went this away, and the 
other that away. [I supposed he indicated the direc- 
tions by pointing.] I'd give my wages fur six 
month to ketch ary one of 'em. Think uv the honor 
uv it, Jim, to ketch 'em afore the dogs and cavalry 
did. Ole Bragg wouldn't stop at a cool thousand or 
two. Ole Jurdan he were bad flustered. He was 
a cavortin' aroun' hollerin' out his orders at the top 
uv his voice, jest a makin' the air blue with his 
eussin'. I wouldn't be in them prison gards' place 
foi no money. I seed them officers put the irons on 
'em, an' they took 'em in ter that same jail thet the 
tories bed got out on." 

The other replied, "It aint no use, Jack Simeral, 



TUPELO. 147 

fur you to talk about them fellers. I'll bet they's 
sharp an' they's safe a hidin' with sum of thar tory 
friends hours ago. I'll bet they aint two miles from 
town. Jack, you know the Clines an' Kaverners, 
they'd die ter save a Union man. They hid Jake 
Broome a month, an' your own cousin Tillie Jack, 
she carried him grub till the Union fellers got the 
thing fixt up an' sent him off ter the Yankees — Bill 
Hawkins a giden' a squad of em'. 

"Well," said the other, "them dogs'll kum up 
with 'em if they hev haf a chance, an' they'll never 
make it to the Yankee lines, sure as my name's Jim 
Billick." 

Soon one of them arose and struck a bush almost 
above my head. I thought that he had discovered 
me and was about to rise and run, when I heard him 
say to his comrade, "Bill, that was the biggest snake 
I've seen lately, a regular water moccasin, but it got 
off inter the bushes. I reckin' it's makin' fur the 
creek, kase they don't git far from water." 

I began to feel somewhat uncomfortably situated 
when I learned that I was in close proximity to a 
large and poisonous snake, but I would have much 
preferred meeting an anaconda, boa constrictor, or 
even the deadly cobra di capello, rather than those 
vile secessionists, thirsting for innocent blood. They, 
too, passed oh and left me to gloomy rumination. 
Presently a large number coming from the creek 
were about to enter this thicket in quest of berries, 
when one of their number swore that there were no 



1 48 TUPELO. 

berries in that thicket. He had been there last even- 
ing with a crowd and cleaned them out teetotally. 
lie tli en took them to a place where he said there 
were plenty of berries, much to my relief. I thought 
this 5th of July was the longest day I had ever 
known. The sun was so long in reaching the zenith, 
and so long in passing down the steep ecliptic way to 
the Occident. But as all days, however long seem- 
ingly, come to an end, so did this. The stars came 
glittering one by one. I soon recognized that old, 
staunch, and immovable friend of all travelers on 
the underground railway, the polar star Rising 
from my lair, I was soon homeward bound, guided 
by the north star and an oriental constellation. 
Plunging into a dense wood, I found my rapid ad- 
vance impeded by the undergrowth, and had great 
difficulty in following my heavenly guides, as the 
overarching boughs of the great oaks rendered them 
invisible or dimly seen. I came to the creek — Old 
Town creek. At that place it was deep and wide. I 
found a place where a fallen tree partly spanned it. 
1 walked on the trunk till I nearly reached its ter- 
minus, then I ran and jumped as far as I could. I 
alighted near the further shore, in water only up to 
my arm-pits. I speedily reached the dry ground 
and hastened onward. The water quenched my rag- 
ing thirst, but I was very hungry, tired, and sleepy. 
I at length lay clown at the foot of a large water-oak, 
resolving to take only a nap, and then rise and pur- 
sue my journey. When I awoke the sun was rising. 



TUPELO. 1 l!) 

I arose full of regret for the loss of so much precious 
time. Though somewhat refreshed by my sound 
sleep, my hunger was almost unendurable, and I was 
famishing from thirst. At length I descried a small 
log house by a roadside. In the distance I could see 
tents. Feeling sick and faint, I resolved to go to the 
house to obtain water, and if I liked the appearance 
of the inmates, reveal my condition and ask for aid. 
I never had much difficulty in discerning between a 
Unionist and secessionist family. The bile and bitter- 
ness of the rabid secessionist was patent, and readily 
revealed his true character. He gloried in making; 
his proclivities known. TheUnionist was ordina- 
rily reticent, unless he was playing the role of a 
secessionist, and even then his theatrical performance 
was transparent to one who had himself found it 
necessary upon occasion to assume that guise, or to 
one who had mingled with both classes and had stud- 
ied their idiosyncrasies. 

I went to the door of the log edifice and knocked. 
A gruff voice said, "Conie." I entered, but a glance 
revealed to me the character of the proprietor. I did 
not like his physiognomy. He looked the villain. 
A sinister expression, a countenance revealing no 
intellectuality except a sort of low cunning, bore testi- 
mony that it would be the extreme of folly to repose 
confidence in the possessor of such villainous looks. 
I asked for water, intending to drink and leave his 
rude domicile. He pointed to the bucket without 
speaking. A gourd dipper was floating upon the 



150 TUPELO. 

surface of the water which filled it. I drank and 
bade him good-bye, and took my departure, glad to 
escape so easily. I had proceeded but a few steps 
when I heard the command, halt ! uttered in a sten- 
torian tone. Upon looking backward I saw two 
soldiers within a few steps. One was presenting a 
double-barreled gun, the other was heavily armed. 
I asked the soldier who had given the command by 
what authority he halted me, to which he replied, "I 
know you, sir, I have heard you preach frequently, 
you are Parson Aughey, and you were arrested and 
lodged in prison at Tupelo. I was in Col. Mark 
Lowrey's regiment yesterday, and learned that you 
had broken jail, and now, sir, you must return. My 
name is Dan Barnes. You may have heard of me." 
I had indeed heard of him. His father had held the 
office of postmaster. His son had systematically 
robbed the mail, and for a long time eluded detection. 
A detective, at length, through a decoy letter, dis- 
covered his guilt. When he was arrested the letter 
with its contents was found upon his person. While 
being conveyed to prison he escaped from the officer, 
fled to Napoleon or Helena, Arkansas — was followed, 
lirought back, and incarcerated in jail at Pontotoc. 
As the evidence against him was positive and admit- 
ted no doubt of his guilt, he would have been con- 
victed and sent to the penitentiary, but fortunately 
lor this criminal, at this juncture Mississippi seceded. 
The jurisdiction of the Federal authorities Mas re- 
garded at an end — a nolle "prosequi was entered in the 



TUPELO. 151 

case of Barnes, and he was liberated and soon after 
joined the Confederate army. 

Soon Barnes came to me and said, "Parson, I feel 
sorry for yon, I can sympathize with you for I was 
once in a tight place myself, and would have been 
much pleased to have found a friend to lend a help- 
ing hand. Now, if you will pay me a reasonable 
sum I will afford you an opportunity of escaping." 
I distrusted Barnes' sincerity, but could not mala' 
the matter worse by accepting his proffered aid. lie 
named two hundred and fifty dollars as the reason- 
able sum to secure his connivance at my escape. I 
proffered two hundred and forty dollars. It was ac- 
cepted, and I paid it over to him. When he had 
secured the money, he said, with a sardonic laugh, 
"I was just playing off on you. You must go back 
to prison. I have no sympathy for d — d tories, and 
wish they were all in h — 1." They then brought me 
into the presence of General Jordan, whose head- 
quarters were still at the place where I had the mis- 
fortune to meet him at first. The proprietor of the 
log cabin was named David Hough. He accompa- 
nied Barnes and Eph. Hennon, as they returned me 
to the rebel authorities. Barnes proclaimed, as he 
passed through the camps, his good fortune, and re- 
ceived the congratulation of the soldiers. He re- 
ceived everywhere an ovation. It was a sort of tri- 
umphal march, which he enjoyed greatly. 

I became the cynosure of all eyes. As Barnes 
would stop and recount his heroic and marvelous ex- 



152 TUPELO. 

ploit in arresting me, the soldiers would crowd around 
rue, gazing and hurling at rne a torrent of questions. 
They wanted me to tell them where Malone was, and 
assured me that old Bragg would be d — d glad to see 
me. After running this gauntlet for hours, I Mas 
ushered into the august presence of Gen. Jordan. He 
said, "Where is Malone?" I told him that I did 
not know — that I had not seen him after T had left 
the prison. He refused to credit any of my state- 
ments. He told me that Malone would soon be 
brought in, dead or alive. He could not evade the 
hounds and the cavalry. He hoped to heaven that 
they might catch him speedily, that we might die to- 
gether. He then ordered a guard to conduct me to a 
blacksmith's shop. He ordered the blacksmith to 
forge fetters — bands and chain — so large and strong 
that I might be so securely manacled as to prevent 
the least possibility of my giving them the slip till I 
had expiated my crimes upon the gallows. The 
blacksmith was ordered to put the bauds on while 
red hot, and my boots were burnt in the process of 
ironing. It was quite painful, though the blacksmith 
was as gentle as possible. Gen. Jordan stood by 
with drawn sword, superintending the execution of 
his order. 

The blacksmith said, " Taisez vous" I replied, 
" Oui } oui." He gave me his name, and embraced 
every opportunity of offering a word of comfort. 
He was a Unionist. He asked Gen. Jordan to allow 
me to go to his house and get something to eat, but 



TUPELO. 1 53 

his request was arrogantly refused. I think his 
name "was Monday or Friday. I remember that it 
was the name of one of the days of the week. I 
thus associated it in my mind at the time. He told 
Gen. Jordan that he had never manacled a man, and 
was averse to obeying such an order. The General 
told him to go to work at once, or go to prison. 
The blacksmith only obeyed upon compulsion. 

" Iron him securely, securely, sir" was the 
General's oft repeated order. The ironing caused 
me much pain, my ankles being long discolored from 
the effects. By wearing shackles so long, ulcers were 
formed which have left life-long sears. After I was 
secured by these manacles, they assisted me to re- 
mount the horse. I was compelled to ride sidewise. 
The irons prevented me from riding astride. I told 
Gen. Jordan that I had been told that iron had be- 
come scarce in the Southern Confederacy, but that he 
had given me an abundant supply. I was conducted 
under guard to Tupelo. Upon my arrival the 
provost marshal and commander of the post were 
much rejoiced to see me. They became hilarious. 
Barnes, in grandiloquent style, stated that I had 
attempted to bribe him, that he had listened to my 
proposition with indignation, and when he had got- 
ten the money did what he regarded was his duty. 
The commander replied that all of the properly of 
traitors was theirs, and commended Barnes for de- 
ceiving me after he had secured the bribe. He also 
recommended Barnes for promotion for his heroic 



1 5 1 TUPELO. 

and patriotic act in arresting me, and for his incor- 
ruptible integrity. 

The provost marshal said to me: " Why did you 
attempt to leave us?" 

" Because, sir, your prison was so filthy, your fare 
so meagre and unwholesome, and your treatment so 
harsh, cruel, and vindictive, that I could not long en- 
dure it and survive." 

"Parson, you know the bible says, 'the wicked 
flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as 
bold as a lion.' You must have been guilty of 
crime or you would not have attempted to escape." 

" I confess to the truth of some of the charges 
made against me, and yet hold that I am innocent of 
any crime against God or man for which I am 
amenable to the state or Confederate states. As to 
pursuit, I think two companies of cavalry with 
blood-hounds would indicate quite vigorous pursuit." 

"You shall never be remanded to the prison vou 
left ; rest assured of that. Did any of the prisoners 
know of or aid you in your escape?" 

" No, sir, none of them knew anything about it." 

"Are you telling the truth?" 

"lam." 

"Where is Malone?" 

"I know not. I never saw him after I left the 
prison." 

" He cannot escape. He will be brought in, dead 
or alive. Why did you attempt to bribe Dan 
Barnes ?" 



TUPELO. K > 

"It was his own offer. I know that his cupidity 

was great, and thought it no harm to accept his 
proffered venal aid. If Barnes had his deserts, he 
would now be immured in the penitentiary at hard 
labor." 

" Did the jury that tried him acquit him? " 
" No, the secession of Mississippi alone saved him. 
I refer you to Col. Tison. He, being marshal ot 
North Mississippi, arrested Barnes. Pie found on 
his person the evidence of his guilt — the money and 
drafts stolen when he robbed the mail." 

I might say here, that after this Barnes was in 
company with several soldiers, boon companions of 
his. One of them, named Maness, said to Barnes, 
in reply to some fanciful story that he had been tell- 
ing, " Now, Dan, you know that that is a lie." Dan, 
in anger, said," If you repeat that I will shoot you." 
Maness replied, " We all know it isn't true." 
Barnes immediately shot Maness, and then fled to 
Chopultepec, Alabama. Was pursued, overtaken, and 
arrested. On their return, near the place where 
Barnes had shot Maness, near Paden's mills, the 
guard, three of whom were brothers of the murdered 
man, held a consultation, which resulted in a decision 
to inflict summary punishment upon the murderer. 
He had escaped the penalty due his crime in robbing 
the mail, and they feared that if they returned him 
to the army lie might escape merited punishment. 
They compelled him to dig his own grave, and then 
they hanged him and buried him in the grave 1 he had 



15G TUPELO. 

dug. His doom was just, and no tears were shed 
over his tragic fate. 

Some of the general officers entered the provost 
marshal's office. After a short consultation, one of 
them, approaching me, said, "You will be shot within 
an hour. If you have any message for your friends 
you may write it, and I will see to its delivery." 

I wrote thus : 

Tupelo, Miss., July 7, 1863. 

My Dear AVife — I must die within an hour, so 
General Bragg has this moment informed me. This 
is the last letter you will ever receive from me. I 
die because I have pursued unswervingly what I re- 
garded as my duty to my God and my country. I 
would not, even for the consideration of long life 
and the endearments of a happy home, prove recreant 
to duty and swerve from fidelity to a government 
that has never infringed my rights of person or 
property. 

To the kind protecting care of a covenant-keeping 
God I commit you and our dear Kate and the un- 
born babe, whose face in this world I will never see. 
God has promised to be the husband of the widow 
and the father of the fatherless, and he is faithful 
who has promised. I die at the hands of cruel, im- 
placable, and vindictive men, my own and my 
country's enemies. This is the hour and power of 
darkness, but it is my time- to die. My hour has 
come. It is appointed unto man once o die. Of 
man the scriptures say, his days are determined, the 



TUPELO. 157 

number of his months is with thee. There is an 
appointed bound that he cannot pass. The wicked 
go when their cup of iniquity is full, the righteous 
when they have fulfilled the mission appointed them 
by Jehovah. Our Savior was slain by wicked men car- 
rying out according to the freedom of their own will 
their own murderous purpose, as Peter declared at Pen- 
tecost, Him being delivered by the determinate coun- 
sel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by 
wicked hands have crucified and slain. Kiss our 
darling; Kate for me. I have no fear of death. I 
go trusting in Jesus. We will meet beyond the 
river. Farewell, a long farewell. 

Your aifectionate husband, 

John H. Aughey. 

I wrote within the lines an occasional word in 
phonography, which read thus: Inform Generals 
Nelson and Rosecrans of my re-arrest and my sad 
fate. 

I was then placed under guard and conducted to a 
small room in a hotel till preparations might be 
made for my death by shooting. Two guards re- 
mained in the room with their guns with bayonets 
fixed, with strict orders to shoot or bayonet me if I 
made the least show of an attempt at escape. There 
were two guards also stationed just outside the door, 
with the same orders, to be enforced if necessary. 

1 remained in this room an hour or more, suppos- 
ing that as soon as the necessary arrangements for my 
execution were completed I would be led to death. 



1 58 TUPELO. 

After a time orders came and I was marched into 
the presence of the officers. General Bragg said, 
'• We have concluded to hang yon." 

I replied, "I deprecate that mode of execution. 
Do please shoot me." 

He then said, "You will also have a trial, and if 
it results in conviction, of which there is no doubt, 
you will be hanged in the presence of the army." 

The guards Mere then ordered to take charge of 
me. My chain was so short that I could only step 
about ten inches. I could just set my heel in step- 
ping even with the toe of the opposite foot. They 
brought me to the same old prison. When I en- 
tered it, my old friends, the true, tried, and trusted 
prisoners who still survived, crowded around me. 
Captain Bruce addressed me in his facetious manner. 
In prison his wit had beguiled many a tedious hour. 
His humor Mas the pure Attic salt. 

"Parson Aughey, you are welcome back to my 
hotel, though you have played us rather a scurvy 
trick in leaving without giving me or any of us 
the least inkling of your intention, or settling your 
bill." 

I replied, " Captain, it was hardly right, but I did 
not like your fare, and your hotel M r as sadly infested 
with chinches, chiggers, ticks, and graybacks." 

" Well, you do not seem to have fared better since 
you left, for you have returned." 

"Captain, my return is the result of coercion. 
Some who oppose this principle when applied to 



TUPEI.o. lo9 

themselves have no scruples in enforcing it upon 
others. 

' Xo rogue e'er felt the baiter draw 

'With good opinion of the law,' 

is an old saw, and the truth of proverbs is seldom 
affected by the lapse of time. I am your guest by 
compulsion, but remember I will leave you upon the 
first opportunity." 

Upon hearing this statement, an officer present, 
named Cecil Hindman, with a bitter imprecation, 
said that when I next crossed the threshold of that 
building it would be to go to cross the railroad to 
the place of execution. 

The prisoners gathered around me upon the exit 
of the officers, and I related to them my adventures. 
They then informed me of what had occurred during 
my absence. At roll call the next morning we were 
missed. Clarke was taken out to guide a company 
in search of you. The guards on duty during the 
night were put under arrest. Your method of escape 
was speedily discovered and the guards were released, 
as they were not at fault. The floor was spiked 
down, the guards increased in number, and greater 
vigilance enjoined. The prisoners were questioned 
as to whether they knew of your escape or had in 
any way contributed to effect it. We all positively 
denied any knowledge of or complicity in the escape. 
They asked me if T had given the officers any infor- 
mation about their knowledge oi our designs and 
co-operation in effecting them. I told them that I 



160 TUPELO. 

had positively denied that any except Malone and 
myself were privy to our plans. "Was this right? 
Is falsehood ever justifiable? 

If I had revealed the aid received from my fellow- 
prisoners they would have been severely punished, 
perhaps some of them capitally, at once. And my 
fellow-prisoners would have regarded me as a base 
ingrate, and would not a second time, as they did, 
have risked their lives to set me free and save my 
life. We ought to speak every man truth to his 
neighbor, but those secessionists, thirsting for innocent 
blood, were in no true sense our neighbors, though 
too near neighbors, in regard to physical proximity, 
for our welfare. In order to save life we may take 
life, and may we not deceive by words, and be guilt- 
less, those who would use their knowledge to destroy 
the innocent? I asked Benjamin Clarke, when he 
was remanded to prison, to give us the particulars of 
the pursuit of Malone and myself by the cavalry and 
blood-hounds, to which request he assented. 

benjamin claeke's story. 

"You were not missed till roll-call in the morning. 
Your name was the first on the roll. This man [lay- 
ing his hand on the shoulder of a prisoner] is a great 
miniic. When he tries he can beat a mocking bird. 
He can mimic any man's voice. He can call up any 
animal or bird when he wants to shoot it. This man, 
Will Croghan's his name, sung out, 'Here.' Some of 
us that knowed you was gone looked round, thinkin' 



TUPELO. 161 

it was your voice. "When they got to Malone's name, 
Jim Benton sung out present, but he wasn't no 
mimic, and the officer called out agin, Dick Malone, 
an' nobody answered. He then stopped calling the 
roll and sent out an orderly. It wasn't long till old 
Bragg, Hardee, and some other officers come into the 
prison in a hurry. The officer commenced calling the 
roll agin. Croghan was afeard to chirp, an' they found 
that you and Malone was gone. Bragg stormed 
round a spell, and afore long I was sent for. They 
told me to mount a horse a nigger was holdin'. I 
done so, and we all started off. They told me to 
guide them straight to Paden's mill. We had twenty- 
five cavalry men and forty dogs. They started with 
that many, seem' they might have to separate to fol- 
low different trails. How the hounds did howl and 
yelp. To give you a chance, 1 took : em round by 
Bull Mountain, up one hill an' down the same, an' 
up another. They wanted to find some of your cloze 
in the prison to let the dogs git a scent. I thought 
Alex. Spear, that Federal prisoner from Ellisville, 
Illinois, an' you had traded pants, so you could git a 
dark pair so as to git by the guards, but they wazent 
none the wizer for me knowiir that. "Well, nigh on 
to 4 o'clock in the evenin' we struck a trail. The 
hounds follered it lively. I waz awful feared it waz 
yourn, still I thought you wouldent be sich a fool as 
to go off on a straight shoot for Fulton, where they 
took us on our way here, an' where all the roads waz 
picketed. The trail was fresh, and the hounds got 
11 



162 TUPELO. 

about a mile ahead. All at once we knowed they had 
treed their game, an' agin I jist trembled in my boots 
for fear it waz yon. We loped along as fast as we 
could, but the ground got swampy an' the bushes 
waz thick, an' drekly we knowed the dogs hed come 
up with some big varmint, an' it was givin 'cm bat- 
tle, and they waz gittin' the wust of the skrimmage. 
We hed an awful time to git through the chaparral, 
an' we had to go out of our way a long trip to git 
round a sloo. But when we did come up with the 
dogs they hed killed an awful big bar. But afore he 
knocked under he'd got his work in on the dogs, an' 
you may never b'leve me agin ef there wazzent four- 
teen dogs lyin' dead as herrin's an' some more com- 
pletely uzed up. The best sentin' hound •vvaz lyin' 
close to the ded bar, and the bar's jaws was clozed 
on one of his hind legs like a vise. We got his jaws 
loose, but the dog's leg waz mashed into a jelly, an' 
we hed to shoot him to put him out of hiz mizery. 
Well, these cavalry fellows swore they wazzent goin' 
to leave till they hed tried some of the bar steaks. 
They drug the carcass of the bar half a mile to a 
hummock, an' rolled up logs till they lied made a big 
log-heap, then sot it on fire, skinned the bar, sliced 
off the nice steaks, an' jist enjoyed themselves. 'Fore 
this waz done it waz very dark, an' the cap'n in 
charge of the squad sed he reckoned they'd best go 
inter camp fer the night. 'Twazent fur from Fulton. 
'Bout midnight ten of these fellers stole off to go to 
Madam Dunderberg's, in Fulton. She kep a bagnio 



TUPELO. 163 

on the edge of town. They got into a row with 
some roughs that waz there an' hed monopolized all 
the girls, and Bill Snediker and Jo Rucker was killed, 
an' Nath Downs waz hurt bad. They had a tough 
time gitten back. The cap'n hed to leave Downs at 
a settler's cabin, an' sent the settler fer a doctor, but 
before the doctor kuni Downs hed gone wher they 
don't need no doctors, fur as we know. Well, 'twas 
nigh about noon, an' the cap'n said we'd bury Down- 
decent afore we left, so Ave hed dinner fust of 'n the 
bar, then we dug a grave 'en buried Downs with the 
honors of Avar. I thought about escapin', but there 
wazent the ghost of a chance. The dogs was allowed 
to tackle the bar, an' there wazent much of bruin, as 
the cap'n called him, left after they had done satisfied 
their appetites. The cap'n, Hindman I think waz 
his name, Mas purty bad flustered. He'd give me 
his compass, an' I, hopin' to escape, pertended I'd 
dropped it accidental in the swamp. The cap'n waz 
mad as blazes, an' swore wus than old Van Dorn 
when he foun' out the parson and Malone hed broke 
jail. He told me I must git them to Paden's mill 
agin night, or he'd tie me up by the thumbs. I told 
him that was onpossible. He said onpossible or not 
it must be did. "Well, we started off, bearin' north- 
east. We passed right by my house. I said, " Cap'n 
les make some inquiries here." We pulled up before 
the door, it opened an' my wife an' children come to 
to the door. I got down of 'n the horse an' they all 
gathered about me like so many bees. Lilly May, 



164 TUPELO. 

the baby, nestled her head in my bosom. Jim said, 
' Pa, we've been workin' like beavers since you waz 
taken away from us. You'll find the crops all right. 
Ma helped us, too.' Just then the cap'n ordered me 
to mount my horse. 'Oh, pa/ the children shouted, 
'Ain't you come home to stay?' but the cap'n hur- 
ried on, and the last sight I had of my wife and babes 
they waz all weepin' as ef their hearts would break, 
an' its the last sight of 'em I ever expect to have in 
this world. 

He stopped to weep and we all wept in sympathy 
with him. "When we got to Mackey's creek," he con- 
tinued, "near Paden's mill, Ave camped fur the night. 
Next mornin', bright an' early, we rode up to Mr. 
Paden's. The cap'n told Mr. Paden he had a dis- 
agreeable duty to perform. He had been ordered to 
search his premises for a prisoner — a son-in-law of 
hizzen that hed broke jail at Tupelo. Mr. Paden 
said he might search, but they would find no one. 
They searched the house upstairs and down, then 
sent a squad to the negro quarters, another to the 
mills, but their errand waz a bootless one. 

Again he stopped to weep, we all wept with him. 
Saving, " Excuse me I could not help it," he contin- 
ued : " Your wife sat on the sofa in the parlor, pale 
as death. Before we left she came to the door and 
looked at the hounds and listened to their howling. 
Her hands were clasped together. Once I saw her 
lips move. I thought she was praying. I stood 
neat- her, but I did not hear her speak. I think she 



TUPELO. 165 

couldent speak for sorrow. Oh, how my heart bled 
for her, an' how much I wanted to tell her that I 
believed you waz safe in the Federal lines, but I 
could not git a chance to do so without notice. I got 
a chance to say to her father, I believed you waz safe 
in Rienzi by this time, an' I told him to tell his 
daughter so, which I haint no doubt but what he did. 
"We left an' come back in a hurry. The other com- 
pany that went due north got back about the time 
we did. A squad of them reported that they caught 
Malone, but that he got away from them at a house 
where they went to git water. They fired on him, 
and have no doubt that they wounded him bad, an' 
think he never could make the Federal lines. Our 
cap'n told everybody he met that a big reward was 
offered fur you, an' described you the best he could, 
an' stuck up notices describing you an' offering a. re- 
ward fur catchin' you. When they got back they 
put me back in prison, an' I waz very sorry to see 
you here. "Well, we'll have a chance now to go to 
heaven together. I reckon there aint much show fur 
either of us." 

M. T. Anderson said, " If I am ever exchanged 
I'll publish this from one end of the North to the 
other. I'll tell of the heroic endurance of the south- 
ern loyalists who prefer death to dishonor, who pre- 
fer an ignominious death to the guilt of treason 
against the best government the sun shines upon." 

I approached a prisoner who was heavily fettered. 
Both hands and feet were bound with iron bands, 



166 TUPELO. 

and he was chained to the floor, the chain being 
fastened to a bolt. I learned that he was a Minor- 
can. I said, u Yon are a Minorcau, I learn." He 
replied, " I have that honor, sir." After confidence 
had been established between us, he gave me his his- 
tory, thus : 

" My name is Louis LasCassas Lornette. My 
father is a native of the island of Minorca. He re- 
moved with his family and a large number of 
Minorcans to a town on the St. John's river, Florida, 
in the year 1826. There I was born May 8, 1828. 
My mother gave birth to triplets — all boys — Louis, 
Pierre, and Philippe. We always dressed alike, 
and bore a striking resemblance to each other. We 
were devotedly attached to each other and were 
inseparable companions. We became mighty hun- 
ters before the Lord. We pursued this vocation con 
amove, and the founder of Nineveh himself, the re- 
nowned Nimrod, could not have been more successful 
than we. At length the tocsin of war sounded — 
civil war. We had all attended the academy of a 
professor named Nathan Hale, of the state of Ver- 
mont. He was a great admirer of the great statesman, 
Daniel Webster. He had a copy of his speeches 
which we were permitted to read. We admired 
them much, especially his debate with Hayne, Cal- 
houn, and others in the U. S. senate in regard to the 
right of a state to nullify the laws of the national 
government,- or to secede from the Union. We 
thought those statesmen were like pigmies in the 



TUPELO. 1<» i 

hands of a giant. When the war came, and we were 
told that the government must be disrupted in the 
interest of human slavery, my brothers and I resolved, 
come weal or come woe, we would never, never be 
guilty of treason to subserve an institution we de- 
tested. Our parents had taught us to hate slavery 
with a perfect hatred. Many a poor hunted fugitive 
have we protected, and taught him how to defend 
himself from the terrible Siberian blood-hound. We 
had never entertained for a moment the idea that we 
ourselves would ever be the object of pursuit by these 
same horrible dogs. One night a company of cav- 
alry surrounded our father's house, during a re-union 
of his family. We three brothers were seized, bound, 
and after various vicissitudes were placed in prison 
in New Orleans, La,, on the charge of treason 
against the Confederate States of America. We were 
tried and condemned to be shot. They then otfered 
us a pardon on condition that we would enlist in the 
Confederate army. They gave us one week's respite 
for consideration. We were permitted to occupy the 
same cell in prison. We debated the matter, pro and 
con. At first we thought it best to send in our decis- 
ion in the negative at once. Pierre reasoned in this 
way : ' Would it not be well to accept their terms, 
take the oath, enter the army, and at the first favor- 
able opportunity desert and make our way to the 
Federal lines.' ' But what about the oath ? ' said 
Philippe. 'An oath exacted under such circum- 
stances is much more honored in the breach than in 



1G8 TUPELO. 

the observance/ replied his brother. In a moment 
of weakness Ave sent in an affirmative answer. We 
begged to be permitted to enter the same regiment 
and the same company. This request was denied. 
We were mustered in in different regiments, and thus 
separated widely. I was put in a Mississippi regi- 
ment. I deserted, hoping to reach the Federal lines. 
A company of cavalry, with a pack of fierce 
Siberian blood-hounds were sent out in search of me. 
I came to a planter's quarters. The colored people 
and I searched all one day, thus losing much precious 
time, to find some herbs with which I could have 
compounded a subtle poison, and by means of pieces 
of meat saturated with it, I could have destroyed a 
large pack of hounds. But we could not pro- 
cure the herbs. They are indigenous to a low, 
swampy country. They abound in the everglades of 
Florida. The colored people furnished me with 
cayenne pepper, onions, and matches, and I felt 
comparatively safe. But one day I heard a pack of 
hounds behind me. I used every ruse and stratagem 
I could devise, but just as I felt assured that the trail 
was broken a company who had gone north in search 
of you, while returning, came upon me and ordered 
me to come down from the tree in which I had taken 
refuge, and here I am." 

" What will be your fate? " I asked. 

He replied, " They have discovered the regiment 
to which I belonged, and I am condemned to death 
by shooting." 



TUPELO. 1G9 

About 11 o'clock a.m., Col. Gustave Feuillevert 
came into the prison. He was a planter, a slave- 
holder, and a friend of General Sterling Price. He 
was of French ancestry. Had formerly lived in 
Florida, and was an uncle of Louis Lornette, the 
prisoner. He recognized him at once, as Louis a few 
years before had visited his uncle and spent the sum- 
mer with him. Col. Feuillevert, who was an ultra- 
secessionist, tried to induce some of the prisoners to 
promise to enlist in his regiment in case he secured 
their release upon that condition. He was not success- 
ful in a single instance. He then approached his 
nephew, Louis, who was sitting alone in the corner of 
the prison, and informed him that his brothers, 
Philippe and Pierre, were at his house in hiding. He 
said they had deserted from Florida regiments, and af- 
ter many remarkable adventures had reached his house 
in as ragged and forlorn a condition as it was possible 
for men to be found. He detested their treason, but 
their aunt would save them at the peril of her life, 
and although he would not betray them he felt sorry 
and angry at their obstinacy. The colonel urged his 
nephew to abjure his allegiance to a government that 
made war upon the institutions of the South and re- 
fused to keep faith with the Southern states, and had 
measurably nullified the provisions of the fugitive 
slave law; but all in vain, Louis refused to swerve 
from his loyalty. The colonel bade his nephew- 
adieu, and departed. The day of Louis' execution 
dawned. I conversed with him, prayed with hira, 



170 TUPELO. 

took his last messages to wife and children, promis- 
ing that if I survived the horrors of this prison I 
would faithfully deliver them, but of this I had lit- 
tle hope. Louis told me it was clear to his mind 
that God in His providence had sent me to this prison 
for such a time as this. Those appointed to die 
needed the presence of one who could point them to 
the Savior, and, as a humble instrument in the hand 
of God, prepare them for a dying hour. It was a 
source of poignant regret that he had, even for the 
hope of escape, taken the oath of allegiance to the 
Confederate States of America. His oath of allegi- 
ance to the state of Florida he thought was right and 
proper, as he understood it. 

At noon the guards brought in a prisoner who had 
voluntarily surrendered himself, declaring that he 
was Louis Las Cassas Lornette and desired to rejoin 
his regiment. When confronted with the condemned 
Louis, they bore such a striking resemblance to each 
other that the officers were puzzled. Gen. Bragg 
would be absent from Tupelo for a few days, and 
Gen. Sterling Price, to whom the case was referred, 
granted a respite till Gen. Bragg's return. Each 
prisoner insisted that he was Louis Las Cassas Lor- 
nette, and refused to recognize the other. The offi- 
cers took the matter under advisement, and thought 
it host to send the two prisoners to Gen. Bragg for 
his decision. Should they fail to carry out Gen. 
Bragg's orders promptly they feared the conse- 
quences. A regiment was detailed for this purpose. 



TUPEL< ). 171 

They went via Paden's Mills. Here they met a reg- 
iment of Federal cavalry; a skirmish ensued, several 
were killed, and their bodies lie buried in Mr. 
Paden's orchard. The Confederates fled and were 
pursued four miles. They left their prisoners in the 
hands of the Federals. 

So Louis and Pierre still live to tell their children 
the trials and persecutions of the Southern loyalists. 
Philippe soon rejoined them in the North, and enlist- 
ing in the same regiment, they served faithfully till 
the close of the war. Philippe died May 8, I860, of 
a wound received in the engagement which resulted 
in the capture of Fort Fisher. Not till the war was 
ended did their families rejoin them. Louis' and 
Pierre's and Philippe's families are citizens of Cali- 
fornia. Pierre had resolved to save his brother or 
perish with him. The affection of Damon and 
Pythias could not have been stronger. A kind 
Providence crowned the scheme to save his brother 
Louis with abundant success, and these elderly vet- 
erans, still as much alike as in their youth, save the 
scar of a sabre thrust which laid open the cheek of 
Louis, are still fighting their battles over at the urgent 
solicitation of their children and their grand- children 
and neighbors. 

These brothers are still soldiers, faithful soldiers 
of the Cross. Louis dates his conversion from the 
time of his incarceration in Tupelo, and when he 
writes to me addresses me as his spiritual father, and 
speaks of himself as my son in the gospel, begotten 



172 TUPELO. 

in my bonds. Pierre and Philippe united with the 
regimental church at Beaufort, North Carolina, 
brought to Jesus by their brother Louis, and their 
Christian graces rapidly developed under the faithful 
ministrations of that godly pastor, Chaplain LaSalle 
Coligny, of Huguenot ancestry. 

We are living, we are dwelling, 

In a grand aud awful time, 
In an age on ages telling, 

To be living is sublime. 

After being remanded to prison, I felt that my 
condition was utterly hopeless. For a time, as often 
as I approached the door, the guards would order me 
back. I preached to my fellow-prisoners every 
evening. The best possible order was maintained, 
as they stood or sat upon the floor and listened to the 
words of eternal life. A deep seriousness prevailed, 
and many believed, to the salvation of their souls. 
The songs of Zion resounded through the prison 
house, and a great concourse of soldiers assembled 
outside the guards in front of both doors. Several 
officers saw fit to come in during divine service. 
Some of them behaved decorously, but on one or two 
occasions, officers who neither feared God nor re- 
garded man, nor the proprieties becoming gentlemen, 
interrupted the services by talking in aloud and in- 
sulting tone, and asking me how I liked my jewelry, 
pointing to my fetters. The prisoners protested 
against their rude and ungentlcmanly conduct, but 
without effect ; they sent a remonstrance to the com- 



TUPELO. 1 73 

mander of the post, but he treated it with silent 
contempt. 

We were a motley assemblage. All the southern 
states and every prominent religious denomination 
had representatives among us. The youth in his 
nonage, and the gray-haired and very aged man were 
there. The learned and the illiterate, the superior 
and the subordinate were with us. The descendants 
of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, were here on the same 
common level, for in our prison were Afrie's dark- 
browed sons, the descendants of Pocahontas, and the 
pure Caucasian. Death is said to be the great leveler; 
the dungeon at Tupelo was a great leveler. A fel- 
low feeling made us wondrous kind ; none ate his 
morsel alone, and a deep and abiding sympathy for 
each other's woes pervaded every bosom. When our 
fellow-prisoners were called to die, and were led 
through our midst with pallid brows and agony de- 
picted upon their countenances, our heartfelt expres- 
sions of sorrow and commiseration were not loud 
(through fear) but deep. 

An officer entered. My name was called. I arose 
from the floor on which I had been reclining. I 
recognized him as my old friend, Col. H. W. Walter, 
of Holly Springs, Miss. After the ordinary saluta- 
tions, he informed me that he was judge advocate of 
this army, and that he came to inform me of the day 
appointed for my trial, and to learn whether I 
wished to summon any witnesses, and whom. I 
gave him the names and addresses of several wit- 



174 TUPELO. 

nesses, but he refused to send for them, upon the 
plea that they lived too near the Federal lines. I 
replied that the cavalry that had gone in pursuit of 
me had visited those localities. 

He then asked me what I wished to prove by those 
witnesses. I replied that I wished to prove that the 
specifications under the charge of enacting the spy 
are false ; that Ferdinand Woodruff is a man of no 
moral worth ; that Barnes is a mail-robber, and 
therefore not a competent nor veracious witness. 

"Your own admissions," said the colonel, "are 
sufficient to cause you to lose your life. Both 
charges against you will be fully established. The 
testimony as to your guilt is clear and positive." He 
then read the charges and specifications : 

"First charge. — Treason. 

"First specification. — That Rev. John H. Aughey, 
a citizen of the state of Mississippi, and of the Con- 
federate States of America, stated to a member of 
Hill's cavalry, that if McClellan Mere defeated the 
North could raise a much larger army in a short 
time ; that the North would eventually conquer the 
South, and that he was a Unionist — this for the pur- 
pose of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. 

" Second specification. — That when said Aughey 
was requested to take the oath of allegiance to the 
( 'onfederate States of America, he refused, giving as a 
reason that England and France and himself had 
not as yet recognized the Southern Confederacy ; 
stating also that he had voluntarily taken the oath 



TUPELO. 175 

of allegiance to the United States government, which 
he regarded as binding — this in North Mississippi. 

" Third specification. — That said Rev. John H. 
Aughey was acting as a Federal agent in the pur- 
chase of cotton, and that he had received a large sum 
of gold from the United States government to pay 
for the cotton purchased. 

" Second charge. — Enacting the spy. 

" That said Aughey, while a citizen of the Con- 
federate States, repeatedly came into our lines for the 
purpose of obtaining information for the benefit of the 
enemy, and that he passed through the lines of the 
enemy at will, holding an unlimited pass from Gen. 
Wm. Nelson, of the Federal army, granting that 
privilege — this in the vicinity of Corinth, Mississippi, 
in '61-2. 

" Witnesses — Wallace, Ferdinand Woodruff, J. B. 
Coyner, Daniel Barnes, David Hough, — . Williams, 
and J. R. Simonson." 

I demanded a copy of these charges, which Col. 
Walter promised to furnish. He kindly bade me 
good-bye, and left the prison. 

About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I approached 
two prisoners who were heavily ironed. They were 
handcuffed, had bands and chains upon their ankles, 
similar to mine, and were also chained together and 
to a bolt in the floor. I inquired for what offence 
they were incarcerated. The prisoner whom I ad- 
dressed was a tall gentleman with a very intellectual 
expression of countenance and of prepossessing man- 
ners. He was pale and sad. 



17f) TUPELO. 

" We are charged with desertion." 

"Did you desert?" 

" I enlisted in the Confederate service for twelve 
months. At the expiration of my term of service I 
asked permission to return home, stating that I had 
learned from a trustworthy source that my family 
were suffering from a lack of the necessaries of life; 
that they lived in Tennessee, which is occupied by 
Federal troops. Confederate money there has no 
purchasing power, not being worth the paper on 
which it is printed ; that I desired to relieve my 
family from their distress, and as my term of service 
had expired, I demanded my discharge. This they 
refused, stating that the Confederate congress had 
passed a law requiring all soldiers who had enlisted 
for any term, however short, to be held to service 
during the war, and that all who left before its close 
would be considered guilty of desertion, and if 
arrested would be shot. Regarding the law as a 
tyrannical enactment, and of no binding force, I at- 
tempted to return to my family, but was arrested and 
committed to this prison." 

"What will be your fate?" 

" I don't know, but fear the worst. At our trial 
Gen. Bragg said some salutary examples must be 
made to deter soldiers from deserting, or the army 
would waste away as snow before the bright beams 
of the vernal sun. His bile and bitterness over- 
flowed in acrimonious invectives." 

The other prisoner's statement was a perfect coun- 
terpart of his comrade's. 



TUPELO. 1 11 

The first was named Melville Baillie, of Raleigh, 
Tennessee, and the other Polk Childress, of Hickory 
Wythe, Tenn. Their friend, Parley Van Horn, ol 
Colliersville, Tenn., they left sick at the home of his 
cousin, Felix Grnndy Ayres, in Byhalia, Miss., who 
thus escaped. I left them and walked to the oppo- 
site side of the prison, when I observed a file of sol- 
diers drawn up in front of the prison. Two officers 
entered, and walking up to the prisoners with whom 
I had just Jbeea conversing, unfastened their chains, 
and ordered them to follow. As the officers passed 
Capt. Bruce, he asked, " What are you going to do 
with these men ? " " Going to shoot them," was the 
reply. They then showed him the warrant for their 
execution, having written across it in red letters, 
"condemned to death." When the prisoners reached 
the door, the file of soldiers separated, received the 
prisoners into the space in their midst, marched 
them across the railroad, and shot them. 

Thus was perpetrated an act of cruel tyranny that 
cries loudly to heaven for vengeance. Two families, 
helpless and destitute, were thus each deprived of its 
head, upon whom they were dependent for support, 
and abandoned to the cold charity of a selfish world. 
The wages earned by a year's service in behalf of 
the wicked, cruel, and vindictive Confederate state-, 
was an ignominious death and a dishonored grave. 
The widow and the fatherless cry to heaven for ven- 
geance, and their cries have entered into the ear- of 
the Lord of Sabaoth. 

12 



178 TUPELO. 

The judge advocate of the army, Col. H. W. 
Walter, returned to the prison and called my name. 
I speedily confronted him. He brought a copy of 
the charges preferred against me. 

He said : " My wife feels a deep interest in you. 
She is very anxious in some way to secure your 
acquittal. I received a letter from her to-day, a por- 
tion of which I will read you : ' Mr. Aughey's many 
friends in Holly Springs, and I am of the number, 
earnestly request you to do all you candor his re- 
lease, that will comport with the interests of our 
government. Remember that he is a minister 
of the gospel, and deserves all the courtesy, con- 
sideration, and kind treatment due to one who has 
faithfully and zealously fulfilled his high calling' in 
our immediate vicinity — at Waterford and Spring 
Creek. Our dear friend, Mrs. Louis Thompson, has 
a mother's affection for him, and will visit him if 
permitted, that she may minister to his comfort and 
intercede for his release. He has often been our 
guest and has ever deported himself as a Christian 
gentleman, sans peuret sans reprochef etc." 

He informed me that my trial had been deferred 
until Monday. He said, "You will be tried on 
Monday and hanged on Tuesday at 2 o'clock P.M." 

"Colonel, if my death is a foregone conclusion, you 
may as well reverse the order, and hang me on Mon- 
day and try me on Tuesday." 

" I have examined the testimony against you. I 
know the intention of the officers. Your own ad- 



TUPELO. 179 

missions arc sufficient to condemn yon. It is my 
duty as judge advocate to do all I can for the pris- 
oner, and as a friend I would take pleasure in 
securing your acquittal, if that result would comport 
with the interests and safety of the Confederate 
states. But you have done us oil the harm you 
could. Winfrey and Armstrong', young soldiers 
from Choctaw county, have informed me all about 
your seditious language and conduct while pastor of 
churches down there. They will appear against you. 
The full extent of the injury you have done our 
cause in North Mississippi can only be conjectured, 
but it was to the extent of your ability and oppor- 
tunity. Woodruff, Barnes, ( Yossland, Capt. George, 
David Hough, Wallace, and J. B. Coyner, have 
given sufficient testimony to Gens. Bragg, Beaure- 
gard, Jordan, and Price, of your treasonable exploits 
to fill a volume. At one time Gen Bragg became so 
angry at the recital of your Norman Bridge feat, 
that he came near ordering a detail to hang you at 
once, without the forms or farce of a trial. -*And he 
would have done so, only Gen. Sterling Price inter- 
posed and insisted that as you were a minister of the 
gospel the right thing to do was to give you a fair 
and impartial trial. As you were chained and 
closely guarded in the very midst of this great army, 
escape was not possible, and a few days' respite could 
not by any possibility injure the Southern Confeder- 
acy. Gen. Jordan, who is Beauregard's chief of staff, 
declared that he ordered an 1 inspected the ironing, 



180 TUPELO. 

and that he would vouch for the security of the 
prisoner, for a few days at least. At another time, 
when Dr. Crossland recounted your insolence to 
(icn. Pfeiffer, at Brooksvilie, Gen. Bragg could 
scarcely restrain his wrath, and was upon the point 
of ordering your immediate execution. He thought 
Gen. Pfeiffer did wrong to allow you to express 
treasonable sentiments and to denounce the Confeder- 
ate cause. Your execution will be as conspicuous as 
possible. It will take place in the presence of two 
brigades, composed of soldiers, many of whom are 
personally acquainted with you. There are many 
Unionists up there in North-eastern Mississippi, and 
a salutary example will not be lost on them. Some 
of them are in our army here perforce, and will wit- 
ness an execution suggestive of their own fate if they 
should be guilty of treasonable language or conduct. 
Your crimes will be read to them and commented 
on by Major General Hardee, if present, or Gen. 
Mark Lowrey, in case of his absence." 

"Colonel, I am a civilian. What right have they 
to try me by military law. The civil court has juris- 
diction, and not a court-martial." 

"All citizens of the Confederate States between 
18 and 35 have been declared in the army, by con- 
gressional enactment, and have been required to re- 
port themselves at the head-quarters of the com- 
mander of the nearest military district within a given 
I line, or be considered deserters. Have you com- 
plied with this law'.'" 



TUPELO. 181 

"No, 1 have not. You have furnished me a copy 
of the charges against me, with the specifications. 
Desertion is not one of the charges." 

"No, there are charges enough without that. I 
only mention it to show you that that enactment 
gives military jurisdiction over all citizens of military 
age. All your interests are with the South. It is 
your adopted home, though like myself you are of 
northern birth. Why did you not cast in your 
lot with the dominant class, for whose society you 
are fitted by literary culture, and not with that class 
which is giving us so great trouble, and whose trea- 
sonable utterances and acts we must suppress with an 
iron hand. Our own safety requires that we tolerate 
no longer the traitors in our midst. AVe must con- 
fiscate their property and exterminate them as we 
would venomous serpents." 

"Jefferson Davis, in his inaugural address, quoting 
from the Declaration of Independence, declares that 
when governments become destructive to the ends 
for which they were established it is the right of the 
people to alter or abolish them. Was it the end for 
which our government was established to foster the 
interests of human slavery? If so, and you deem it 
right to protect those interests, go and fight in their 
defence, but do not endeavor to compel me and the 
great majority of the southern people who own no 
slaves to fight for your interests, and to become the 
foes of a government that has never trespassed upon 
our rights, a government which has no superior 



lSL* TUPELO. 

upon the face of the earth. You may murder me, 
hut you cannot murder the government. If I had 
a thousand lives I would gladly lay them all upon 
the altar of my bleeding country." 

"Parson, recanting your opinions would not save 
you now. You have forfeited your life, and I Avill 
not insult you hy characterizing your crimes by their 
true names." 

"AY ho said anything about recanting? I have 
no desire to recant truthful principles. You may 
express your opinion of my crimes, if you wish, and 
give their true names." 

"Well, your crimes are, treason, enacting the spy, 
base ingratitude to your benefactors, and those who 
have heretofore reposed confidence in you, by siding 
with their enemies." 

"Colonel, I have given a fair equivalent for all 
that I have received, and I have injured no one wit- 
tingly, in person, property, or reputation. My 
present condition indicates that the ingratitude is all 
upon the other side. I have labored faithfully for 
eleven years to promote the intellectual and moral 
and religious interests of the southern people, and 
(hey thus repay me with bonds and imprisonment, 
and they intend to pay the last installment by put- 
ting me to an ignominious death on the scaffold." 

"Parson, I will call to-morrow, and should you 
have any requests to make, such as conveying mes- 
sages to friends, disposition of property, or benefit 
of clergy at your execution, I will fulfill them for 
you." 



TUPELO. !S.'5 

"I would be glad to have Rev. James A. Lyon, 
D.D., of Columbus, to be present at my execution , als< » 
Rev. James Pelan, of Macon." 

"I will telegraph them at once." 

"I will prepare messages for my wife and other 
friends by to-morrow evening." 

"I will secure their delivery at the earliest possible 
moment." 

"Thanks, Colonel." 

Soon after Col. Walter left, Col. Clare came in 
and asked me whether I had been president of a 
female college in Rienzi. I replied in the affirma- 
tive. 

"'Tis strange," said he, "that one who has been 
so favored, and one who has accumulated property 
in the South, should prove a traitor to his adopted 
country and become its enemy." 

I replied that I had given a fair equivalent for 
every dollar I had obtained from the citizens of the 
South; that for eleven years I had labored faithfully 
as an educator and minister of the gospel to promote 
the educational, moral, and spiritual interests of the 
southern people in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Louisiana, and Mississippi, and that now I was receiv- 
ing my reward by being chained, starved, and insulted, 
and that they intended soon to pay the last installment 
by putting me to death ignominiously on the scaffold. 
I denied being an enemy to my country or to the 
South, I regarded those who would promote divisions 
and overthrow the government as the real enemies 



J 84 TUPELO. 

of the South who were imperiling all her best inter- 
ests. If my advice had been followed the South 
and the whole country would now be enjoying its 
wonted peace and unparalleled prosperity, and would 
not have suffered W. L. Yancey and other dema- 
gogues to precipitate a desolating and ruinous 
revolution. 

He replied, " Ingrate, traitor, wretch, I have no 
sympathy for you." He then called upon all the 
supernal and infernal powers to blast my soul in 
everlasting death and confine it forever in fiery 
torments. 

The prison walls echoed and re-echoed his blatant 
blasphemy. The prisoners stood aghast, and with 
faces blanched with fear for my safety, plucked me 
away and crowded the space between me and this 
vile blasphemer, who, with hand upon the hilt of 
his sword and pistol belt alternately, seemed ready 
to wreak his vengeance upon me. 

At this moment Major Irion entered, and was in- 
formed by this minion of Jeff Davis that he had re- 
lieved his mind by giving me a "good cussen." 
He left the prison with this officer, cursing as he 
went. 

Perhaps I should have been more circumspect — 
more reticent, and thus prevented this outpouring of 
the vials of Confederate wrath by this cursing- 
Shi mei. 

At this moment Gen. Braxton Brasrff and several 
officers of high rank entered. A distinguished 



TUPELO. 185 

French officer was visiting this country on a tour of 
inspection. He desired to visit this prison, and this 
was the occasion of their visit. When they came to 
the place -where I was standing, Gen. Bragg said, 
" This man dies on Tuesday next." 

"What is his offence?" inquired the officer. 

" He is a prisoner of state, and is guilty of treason." 

"Are they all state prisoners in this prison?" 

"All except a few prisoners of war, who will be 
removed to Macon, Ga., in a few days." 

"This is a bastile, I suppose, but what has this 
prisoner done?" 

"What has he not done, would be a more perti- 
nent question. He has thrown all the influence of 
his official position as a minister of the gospel into 
the scale of opposition against our government." 

"He is a minister, then?" 

"Yes, a Presbyterian minister, of Northern birth 
and education." 

"Ministers are usually regarded as non-com- 
batants." 

"Yes, but by word and deed and sermon and pen 
and every species of treasonable act and utterance, he 
has done our cause infinite harm. He is far from 
being a non-combatant." 

"What is his name?" [Producing a note-book]. 

" He spells his name A-u-g-h-e-y. I "am not sine 
of its pronunciation." 

" O, yes, General, I recognize that name as of 
French origin. We have the name in Franc* — a 



186 TUPELO. 

family of Huguenots. Many of that family were 
banished because of their opposition to the religious 
traditions of our empire, and some of them, after the 
revocation of the edict of Nantes, fled to the British 
Islands, and to Germany and Holland, to avoid the 
penalty affixed to disobeying the ecclesiastical regula- 
tions of our country. He comes by his refractory 
opinions and conduct legitimately." 

Gen. Bragg is a cadaverous, plain-looking man. 
I Ie has bushy black eyebrows and piercing eyes. He 
stoops slightly in walking, and his stubby iron-gray 
heard and his receding forehead give him a plebeian 
look. He is cruel as the grave. Nearly every day 
he shoots some of his own soldiers, often for trivial 
offences. Cruelty is plainly written in indelible char- 
acters upon every lineament of his features, which 
arc stern and almost savage in their expression. 

After a thorough inspection of the prison our dis- 
tinguished visitors retired. 

I approached two elderly, gray-haired men, who 
sat in the north-west corner of the prison. These old 
gentlemen had become fast friends, and wept at the 
thought of their bleeding country's woes, brought on 
by designing, scheming politicians (not statesmen) in 
the interests of an institution subversive of all the 
inalienable rights of man. They gave me their 
history. The older gentleman, John Champe, was 
the youngest son of a revolutionary sire. His father 
had been chosen by Washington to effect the capture 
of Benedict Arnold after his treason, so as to save 



TUPELO. 187 

the life of Major Andre. This, because of untoward 
circumstances, he could not accomplish. But the 
effort was a gallant and heroic one, and merited and 
received high commendation from Gen. Washing-ton. 
This is his story : 

" I resided in Tuscumbia, Ala. I had four sons. 
Three of them had joined the Federal army. One 
night an attack was made on my house. My young- 
est son and I defended ourselves, but after killing 
four of our assailants, they burst in the door. We 
fled by the back door, and endeavored to reach the 
Federal lines. A company pursued us with blood- 
hounds. They overtook us. We fought with des- 
peration. We killed five hounds and four of the 
soldiers. We expended all our ammunition. We 
were both severely wounded. They hung my son to 
the limb of a tree, and left the body to be devoured 
by the birds of prey. They put me in irons and 
brought me here. Why they spared my life I know 
not. The surgeon informs me that my wound in the 
breast will prove fatal in a short time. It gives me 
great pain. I would like much to see my aged wife, 
who, alone and surrounded by bitter foes, is mourn- 
ing our absence." 

The other said : " My name is Carter Braxton. [ 
was named for my grandfather, a signer of the Dec- 
laration of Independence. My home is in Obion 
county, Tenn. My four sons are all in the Federal 
army. This is the cause of my imprisonment. They 
asked me if I were a Unionist, and I replied that it 



188 TUPELO. 

was a principle of law that no one was bound to 
criminate himself. I have had my trial. They 
proved that I had refused to take Confederate money, 
that I have traded with the Yankees, that my four 
sons were in the Federal army, that I was not a 
slaveholder, that I refused to take the oath of allegi- 
ance to the Confederate states', that after the reduction 
of Fort Donaldson I had told one George Sarbaugh 
that it would take more than one Southerner to whip 
five Yankees." 

While he was yet speaking, the officer entered, and 
this old gentleman and a prisoner named Jason Che- 
nault were unchained and marched to the fatal plat 
and shot. Chenault was a Kentucky Unionist, who 
had come to Mississippi to collect money due him for 
mules sold the year before. He was arrested, charged 
with enacting the spy, found guilty, and shot. I 
might record the sad fate of Nicholas Tedder, Bynum, 
Sorrell, and Oswald, all shot at the same time, for 
avowed Unionism, but space is wanting. I may 
place upon permanent record in the near future the 
biographies of these and other martyrs to the holy 
cause of our country's integrity imperiled by traitors. 

I preached every evening. One evening my text 
was I. Kings xviii. 21 : "How long halt ye between 
two opinions." As none of us had a hymn book, I 
composed these hymns for the occasion. I parceled 
them out by couplets, and all joined in the singing: 

How long ! O, sinner, wilt thou halt, 
How long! remain in guilty doubt. 



TUPELO. 189 

While heaven and earth ami air and sea 

The Lord is God, responsive shout. 
Whilst thou art halting, sin grows strong, 

And lust and passion rule thy soul, 
And all the powers of hell comhined 

Still hold thee 'neath their stern control. 
O, sinner, choose in this thy day 

To serve the Lord who loves thee well, 
Oh ! choose to walk in wisdom's way 

And hreak thy league with death and hell. 
Then will the host of heaven rejoice, 

Then will the powers of darkness rage, 
But thou, a soldier of the cross, 

Wilt a successful warfare wage. 
And when the glorious victory's won, 

Thou wilt a king, a conqueror be, 
Wear on thy brow a diadem, 

And have a right to life's fair tree. 

HYMN AFTEE SERMON. 

Spirit of the living God, 
Water now the precious seed, 
Slay the sinner with Thy sword, 
Comfort to Thy saints afford. 
Satan, like the birds of prey, 
Strives to catch the seed away, 
Cares in countless numbers come, 
Shines with scorching heat the sun. 
Thus we see our Savior's foes 
Strive to blast the seed he sows. 
In the hearts of young and old, 
Prosper it, a hundred fold. 
Holy Spirit, Father, Son, 
Aid us till our work is done; 
Then, instead of worthless leaves, 
We shall bring our precious sheaves. 



190 TUPELO. 

Two young men, John N. Maple, of Verona, 
Miss., and Samuel Melvin, of Tallaloosa, Miss., the 
tunner a Primitive Baptist, the latter a Methodist, 
held a discussion on the doctrine of foreordi nation. 
Some point in my sermon occasioned it. They both 
appeared to believe in the doctrine, since the term 
was used in the Bible. Melvin said the decrees of 
God were founded upon His foreknowledge. In the 
«asc of Paul, God foresaw all the contingencies and 
knew because of His prescience how they would 
eventuate, and based His decree that Paul should 
stand before Caesar upon that foreknowledge. Maple 
affirmed that God knew that Paul would stand be- 
fore Csesar because He had decreed it. That He did 
not stand aside an indifferent spectator to observe 
how affairs would result, and then decree that they 
should take place, as He foresaw they would happen 
anyhow. That all that God does in time He always 
intended to do, and all that wicked men do lie 
always intended to suffer or permit them to do. He 
would allow them to do wickedly in the exercise of 
the freedom of their will, only so far as He chose to 
overrule their wickedness for the promotion of His 
declarative glory, and the remainder of wrath He 
would restrain. Beyond the boundary of His will 
He would hem them in by His providence, and say, 
so far shalt thou go and no farther. Foreordination 
is founded upon the will of God, and not upon His 
foreknowledge of what man will do or what He 
foresees will happen. At the close of their debate 



TUPELO. 1!»1 

it was found that neither had convinced the other of 
his error, nor any one else. 

A man of Herculean frame, whose height was six 
feet eight inches, occupied the space on the floor next 
to mine as sleeping quarters. This space he called 
his dormitory. He gave me his history thus: 

" I am a native of East Tennessee. I was born in 
Tell i co Plains, Monroe Co., measurably brought up 
in Conasauga, Polk Co. I married Miss Tennie 
Paden, bought a farm near Dandridge, of one Geo. 
Cogsil, and moved on it in the year 18G0. My own 
name is Hermon Bledsoe. I was chosen a delegate 
to the mass convention of Unionists, held June 17, 
1861, in Greenville, Tennessee, to protest against the 
tyranny inaugurated over us by the rebel authorities. 
I was a member of the committee which prepared the 
following address, which was adopted by the conven- 
tion with entire unanimity. We first detailed the 
facts of the election, how in Middle and West Tennes- 
see the people were overawed, bullied, persecuted into 
an adoption of the ordinance; how the secessionists 
had prepared for the furtherance of their schemes, 
though the state had voted No Separation ; how no 
provision was made for examining the returns other- 
wise than by a disunion governor, whose hold on 
power depended upon the success of the secession pro- 
gram ; how volunteers in the secession army were 
allowed to vote within and without the state, contrary 
to any law ; how discussion was forbidden in those 
sections where the secession vote was triumphant, 



192 TUPELO. 

while every Union paper there was crashed out ; how 
a military despotism was ruling in spite of the wishes 
and rights of the people. The address then went on 
to say, in behalf of the loyal Unionist majority: 

"'We prefer to remain attached to the Government 
of our fathers. The Constitution of the United 
States has done us no wrong. The congress of the 
United States has passed no law to oppress us. The 
president of the United States has made no threat 
against the law abiding people of Tennessee. Under 
the Government of the United States we have enjoyed, 
as a nation, more of civil and religious freedom than 
any other people under the whole heaven. We be- 
lieve that there is no cause for secession nor rebellion 
on the part of the people of Tennessee. None was 
assigned by the legislature in their miscalled declara- 
tion of independence. No adequate cause can be as- 
signed. The select committee of that body asserted 
a gross and inexcusable falsehood in their address to 
the people of Tennessee, w r hen they declared that the 
Government of the United States had made war upon 
them. 

" The secession cause has thus far been sustained 
by deception and falsehood, by falsehood as to the 
action of congress; by false dispatches as to bat- 
tles that were never fought and victories that were 
never won ; by false accounts as to the purpose of 
the president; by false representations as to the views 
of Union men ; and by false pretenses as to the facil- 
ity with which the secession troops would take pos- 



tupelo. lyj. 

session of the capital and capture the highest officers 
of the Government. The cause of secession or rebell- 
ion has no charms for us, and its progress has been 
marked by the most alarming and dangerous attacks 
upon the public liberty. In other states, as well as, 
our own. its whole course threatens to annihilate the 
last vestige of freedom. AVhile peace and prosperity 
have blest us in the Government of the United States, 
the following may be enumerated as some of the 
fruits of secession. 

"'It was urged forward by members of congress 
who had sworn to support the Constitution of the 
United States, and were themselves supported by the 
Government ; it was effected without consultation 
with all the states interested in the slavery question, 
and without exhausting peaceable remedies. It has 
plunged the country into civil war, paralyzed our 
commerce, interfered with the whole trade and busi- 
ness of our country, lessened the value of our prop- 
erty, destroyed many of the pursuits o'f life, and bids 
fair to involve the whole nation in irretrievable 
bankruptcy and ruin. It has changed the entire re- 
lations of states, and adopted constitutions without 
submitting them to a vote of the people, and where 
such a vote has been authorized, it has been upon the 
condition prescribed by Senator Mason, of Virginia, 
that those who voted the Union ticket must leave the 
state. It has advocated a constitutional monarchy, a 
king, and a dictator, and is, through the Richmond 
press, at this moment recommending to the conven- 
13 



I*j4 TUPELO. 

tion in Virginia a restriction of the right of suffrage, 
and in severing connection with the Yankees, to 
abolish every vestige of resemblance to the institu- 
tions of that detested race. It has formed military 
leagues, passed military bills, and opened the door 
for oppressive taxation, without consulting the peo- 
ple, and then, in mockery of a free election, has re- 
quired them by their votes to sanction its usurpations, 
under the penalty of moral proscription or at the 
point of the bayonet. It has offered a premium for 
crime in directing the discharge of volunteers from 
criminal prosecutions, and recommending the judges 
not to hold their courts. It has stained our statute 
book with the repudiation of Northern debts, and has 
greatly violated the Constitution, by attempting 
through its unlawful extension to destroy the right 
of suffrage. It has called upon the people in the 
state of Georgia, and may soon require the people of 
Tennessee, to contribute all their surplus cotton, corn, 
wheat, bacon, beef, etc., to the support of pretended 
governments alike destitute of money and credit. It 
has attempted to destroy the accountability of pub- 
lic servants to the people by secret legislation, and 
set the obligation of an oath at defiance. It has 
passed laws declaring it treason to say or do anything 
in favor of the Government of the United States, or 
against the Confederate states, and such a law is now 
before, and we apprehend will soon be passed by, the 
legislature of Tennessee. It has attempted to destroy, 
and we fear will soon utterly prostrate, the freedom 



TUPELO. L95 

of speech and of the press. It has involved the 
Southern states in a Avar whose success is hopeless, 
and which must ultimately lead to the ruin of the 
people. Its bigoted, overbearing, and intolerant 
spirit has already subjected the people of East Ten- 
nessee to many petty grievances; our people have 
been insulted ; our flags have been fired upon and 
torn down ; our houses have been rudely entered ; 
our families subjected to insult ; our peaceable meet- 
ings interrupted; our women and children shot by a 
merciless soldiery ; our towns pillaged ; our citizens 
robbed and some of them assassinated and murdered. 
Xo effort has been spared to deter the Union men of 
East Tennessee from the expression of their free 
thoughts. The penalties of treason have been threat- 
ened against them, and murder and assassination have 
been openly encouraged by leading secession journals. 
As secession has been thus overbearing and intoler- 
ant while in the minoritv in East Tennessee, nothing- 
better can be expected of the pretended majority than 
wild, unconstitutional, and oppressive legislation ; an 
utter contempt and disregard of law ; a determination 
to force every Unionist in the state to swear to the 
support of a constitution he abhors, and to yield his 
money and property to aid a cause he detests, and to 
become the object of scorn and derision as well as the 
victim of intolerable and relentless oppression. 

" In view of these considerations, and of the fact 
that the people of East Tennessee have declared 
their fidelity to the Union by a majority of about 



196 TUPELO. 

twcntv thousand votes, therefore we do resolve and 
declare.' 

"Here followed a series of patriotic resolutions, 
and the appointment of a committee to prepare a 
memorial, asking the consent of the legislature of 
Tennessee to consent to the separation of East Tenn- 
essee, and those counties of Middle Tennessee which 
desired it, from the rest of the state, that they may 
be formed into a separate state. 

" Brownlow, Maynard, Etheridgc, Nelson, Hawk- 
ins, Johnson, etc., led the Unionists. It was not 
long before those Unionists and protestants against 
wrong were flying for their lives, and were hunted 
down like wild beasts. The leaders disappeared 
from observation, and the people could only become 
quiescent in a state of affairs which, in the presence 
of the armed minions of the Southern Confederacy, 
they were powerless to prevent. 

" I was placed on the proscribed list, and was com- 
pelled to hide in a cavern with other Unionists. 
One night I visited my family, which consisted of 
my wife and twin babes, Mark and Paul. A band 
of guerrillas, lying in ambush in the chaparral near my 
residence, surrounded the house, and rushing through 
the door, which for the moment I had forgotten to 
fasten, took nje prisoner. They searched my person 
and found several copies of the address above given, 
and some letters in a drawer, which were construed 
unfavorably by these cruel men. They handcuffed 
me and took me to the chaparral copse. They held 



TUPELO. 1!»7 

a brief trial, which resulted in my conviction and 
condemnation to death. Immediate preparations 
were made for my execution. Douglas Flinn de- 
clared that hanging was too good for such a wretch 
as I. Jim Bainbridge coincided with him in opin- 
ion. 'What do you want done with him ?' said 
Bob. Torrence, who commanded the gang. 'Let us 
burn him at the stake, like Col. Brown's Sam last 
week, for assaulting a white girl.' ' All right,' said 
Torrence. 'All in favor of burning this d — d ren- 
egade, this Lincolnite, this tory and traitor, say aye.' 
A vociferous aye resounded. ' All opposed, no.' Only 
two voices responded in the negative. Sam Lovell 
took off the handcuffs and bound me to a sapling 
with the rope with which they had intended to hang 
me. The trial had begun in the gloaming, and now 
darkness had enshrouded all the land. Flinn ran 
and gathered an armful of dry sticks and deposited 
them in a pile at mv feet. Soon many were engaged 
in gathering fagots. Flinn declared that this was 
the happiest night of his existence. He would soon 
have the pleasure of seeing this miserable traitor 
going up like Elijah in a chariot of fire. 'So mote 
it be,' growled Jacob Embry, in a sepulchral tone. 
George Goshen, Peter Peters, and J. B. Coyner were 
dispatched to Aunt Sylvia Caldwell's for a firebrand 
with which to ignite the pile of fagots. I commended 
my soul to God and calmly awaited death. Flinn 
approached me with a pile of (as he said) very dry 
wood. He approached quite near, and dropping the 



L98 TUPELO. 

fagots he placed a knife handle between my teeth. 
The large blade of the knife was open. He then 
ran to and mounted a stump about fifty yards dis- 
tant, and commenced to deliver a harangue laudatory 
of the Southern Confederacy, and denouncing all 
traitors, wishing them in the bottom of the lowest 

hell. 

"With some effort I managed to sever the cord bind- 
ing my wrists. I then cut the cord bound around 
my waist, and quietly and quickly made my escape. 
The crowd around Flinn, who was doubtless a 
Unionist in disguise, were cheering vociferously, 
which aided my escape, as the noise drowned the 
crackling of the fagots as I removed or trampled 
upon them on the farther side from the stump orator 
and his auditors. Soon the men with the fire ar- 
rived and applied it to the heap around the sapling. 
Looking back from a hill about two miles distant I 
saw the flames rising higher and higher, till a large 
space was illuminated. Suddenly I heard fierce yells 
of disappointment and rage, emanating from the 
throats of this infuriated and disappointed crowd of 
demons incarnate, maddened to frenzy by my escape. 
I traveled by night, but lay concealed during the 
day. 

" "When in hiding near Siluria, Shelby county, 
Alabama, I heard the sound of a wood-chopper's ax, 
quite near, and peering from the copse in which I 
was concealed, I saw a slave at work felling a tree. 
Soon he began to declaim a piece: 



TUPELO. 199 

" 'The hillsides in places are white I know, 
But the white:. ess is not occasioned hy snow. 
It is only the petals of apples and cherries 
And peaches and plains and all sorts of berries, 
Just falling in sport from their bowers, 
As if to represent April showers. ' 

1 ' Now/ said lie, apparently -well satisfied with his 
eflbi-t, ' Dat's 'bout as good as young Massa 
Josiah hisself could spoke it.' Soon he broke forth 
in song : 

(i ' On Jordan's banks we stand, 

An' Jordan's stream roll by, 
No bridge de watahs span, 

De flood am risin high. 
Heah it foam an' roar, de dark flood tide, 
How shel we cross to de oder side. 

' De riber deep an' strong, 

De wabes am bery cole, 
We see it rush along 

But who can venture bole. 
Heah it foam and roar, etc. 

'A little chile step down, 

It go in de riber deep, 
Kin little feet touch groun' 

Whar mountain billows sweep. 
Heah it foam and roar, etc. 

' Dere comes a Hash of light 

Ober de cole dark wabes, 
Dere come de angel's flight, — , 

See, shinin' hands dat sabe, 
From de watah's foam, de dark flood tide 
Fer de Lawd hub seen from de oder side. 

'Heah music swellin' gran', 
Yes, songs of welcome ring. 



200 TUPELO. 

"White 'wings de riber span, 

De little chile to bring. 
Den let old Jordan roar, de dark flood tide, 
We'se borne across to de odder side. ' 

"I called, 'Halloo, uncle V as he rested fort a mo- 
ment from his labor, with arms akimbo. 'Who am 
<lat calling?' he cried out, with some degree of trep- 
idation. As he looked in my direction, I beckoned 
him to approach me. When he came near I said, 
' To whom do you belong? Where do you live?' 
I le replied, ' I belongs to Major Cayce, of Talladega. 
He bought me and my wife of Col. Shorter, of Choc- 
colocco, Calhoun county, last year. I was borncd 
the slave of Parson Lagow, of Emuckfaw. When I 
wnz six months old, master died, an' ole lady Rudisil 
bought me at the sale fur $500. I lived wid her at 
( hcpultepec till I wnz ten years old, den she died, 
and I wnz sold agin to Gov, Peyton Claiborne, of 
Sylaeauga. I'se bin around sum, but I'se never bin 
out en the state of Alabam. I buys my time from 
my now master, Major Cayce, for twenty-five dollars 
a month. I lives in that cabin up yonder on the 
hill.' He pointed with the index finsrer of his right 
baud to a cabin almost lost to sight in the distance, 
nestling among the trees in a grove surmounting a 
hill of great height. He named it cosy cot, and the 
name was not a misnomer. 

"I revealed my condition to this quadroon slave, 
and he and his kind wife fed and lodged me for a 
week, till I was sufficiently recovered from my 
latigue to continue my journey. 



TUPELO. 201 

On the broad highway of action, 

Friends of worth are far and few: 
But when one has proved his friendship. 

Cling to him who clings to you. 

Should opportunity over be afforded for reciprocating 
the kindness of this slave husband and wife, Isam 
and Tabitha, I will gladly avail myself of it, and do 
them all the kindness in my power. 

"I continued my journey, and with but little of 
incident or adventure worth narrating, I at length 
arrived at the home of my cousin, Jerry Humboldt, 
in Selina, Ala. My cousin was a staunch Unionist, 
a stalwart, uncompromising friend of the United 
States government and the old flag, the star-spangled 
banner, the emblem of freedom and the inalienable 
rights of man. 

"Every day dangers, thickened around us. AVe 
were compelled to devise a plan of escape to the 
Federal lines. Twenty-five of us set out together, 
under the guidance of Leander Browning. At Tal- 
lahatta Springs, Clark county, a band of guerrillas, 
or partisan rangers, as they called themselves, over- 
took us as we were camping for the night. We 
fought them long and well, till we had slain nearly 
twice our number of our pursuers, then, as the dark- 
ness grew denser, the remnant of us, wounded and 
bleeding, fled. 

" I was captured at Sanwilpa, was taken to Tus- 
cahoma, put into a guard house. Soon after I was 
conveyed to Pushmataha; thence I was removed to 



202 TUPELO. 

this dungeon in Tupelo, Miss. I adroitly concealed 
mv identity, and though under violent suspicion 
nothing definite Mas proved against me. To save 
my life, I have agreed to take the oath of allegiance, 
and join the rebel army. I may soon he able to de- 
sert and reach the Union lines. My nom de guerre 
is Ralph Benton." 

"Have you any conscientious scruples about the 
propriety of taking an oath with the deliberate in- 
tention of violating it ? " 

" Not any. It may save my life. At least deliver 
me from this prison. Deception is certainly justifi- 
able in a case like this. The rebels have violated 
every oath that they have ever taken. Shall we 
keep faith with them ? Naught but Punic faith for 
them. As soon trust a rattlesnake as a rebel. I 
hope to reach the Union lines and offer my services 
to General Pope as a volunteer in his army." 

On the next day my friend was permitted to take 
the oath and enter the rebel army. He had several 
copies of the address concealed about his person, as 
he thought beyond the reach of rebel search, one of 
which he gave me. I retain it as a sacred memento. 
A rumor reached me through Philip Henson, a 
Federal spy, that my friend Avas under violent sus- 
picion by the rebels, and was caught in his attempt 
at escape, and shot by order of Gen. N. B. Forrest. 

Anent this rumor, Gen. Jefferson C. Davis told me 
that a soldier in his command bore the name and 
answered the description of Hermon Bledsoe; that 



TUPELO. L J 0."5 

he was a deserter from the enemy ; that he was 
severely wounded in a skirmish, and that his recol- 
lection was that his wound proved fatal. 

One of my fellow-prisoners became suddenly insane. 
He frothed at the mouth, rolled his eyes wildly, and 
butted his head against the walls of the prison. His 
paroxysms were very violent in the presence of the 
officers. I sat near him, and after observing him for 
awhile I came to the conclusion that he was a malin- 
gerer. Presently an officer entered, at that instant 
the crazy man was seized with another paroxysm. 
He became very violent. The officer watched him 
for some time and then said, " We must remove him 
to the hospital that he may die there, for there seems 
to be but little hope of his ultimate recovery, he is 
so sick and crazy and fierce." This man's name was 
Bovard Willis, a Unionist, of Biloxi, Miss. After 
the officer's departure he quieted down in a very short 
time. I approached him and said : 

" Willis, I do not profess to be an alienist, but I 
know that you are no more crazy than I am. I will 
not betray yon. What is your motive in feigning 
madness ? " 

He replied, "If I am taken to the hospital I will 
have a by far better opportunity of escaping. I voted 
against secession, I led the Unionists in our county, 
I became very obnoxious to the secessionists, and 
there is no hope for me but in escape." 

In the evening he was removed to the hospital. 
The next morning he was missing. He had unfor- 



204 TUPELO. 

tunately left some clothing in the hospital. The 
company that went in search of him let the hounds 
smell the garment. Soon they struck his trail and 
followed it to the creek. Willis, upon reaching the 
creek, waded in it three miles, and thus baffled his 
pursuers for several hours. In the afternoon they 
recovered the trail and followed it rapidly for sev- 
eral miles. By this time Willis had reached a house 
ten miles south-west of Tupelo. He went to it at a 
venture. He asked for water. The proprietor 
seemed to know by intuition the character of this 
wanderer. He told his wife to prepare some food for 
this stranger. While he was eatinsr, the howling of 
the hounds was heard. Willis rose in great trepida- 
tion. His host at once interpreted the reason. No 
plan seemed feasible for the concealment of the fugi- 
tive. Mrs. Quay suggested the closet as a hiding 
place, but her husband thought it unsafe, as it was in 
a part of the house so exposed that it would be among 
the first places searched. The blood-hounds finding 
the track fresh were pursuing with great speed. 

Mr. Quay said, pointing to a tree about two hun- 
dred yards distant, " If you could reach that tree, you 
"would find a secure asylum till your pursuers had 
gone on, or returned supposing they were on the 
wrong trail. The horses are in the field, if I can 
only get one up in time and carry you over to the tree 
and get back before they reach us you will be safe." 

Just then the hounds broke out afresh into loud 
howls and sharp yelps. 



TUPELO. 205 

"They are too near for that " said Willis, " I am 
lost." 

"Pa," said little Violetta Quay (who was only 
six years old), "you just tote that man over to the 
tree." 

"I'll do it," said her pa. He stooped down, and 
Willis perched himself upon his shoulders and was 
borne to the tree, and in an incredibly short space of 
time was concealed amid the foliage of the loftiest 
branches of this mighty king of the forest. 

Quay had just time to return and enter his house 
when the hounds bounded into his yard, their fierce 
yelps betokening that they knew that the object of 
their pursuit was near. Soon the pursuing cavalry 
entered the yard, and dismounting, began uncere- 
moniously a thorough but bootless search of the house 
and premises. They questioned strictly each member 
of the family, but they were all woefully ignorant. 
The officer in charge asked little Violetta if she had 
seen any stranger about lately. She replied, " If I 
had I wouldn't tell you. I just wish the poor man 
would come here, I'd hide him if I could from those 
awful dogs." The hounds were completely baffled. 
They would not leave the track indicated by the 
scent of Willis' garment for any other. After two 
hours of fruitless endeavor to recover the track, thev 
left Mr. Quay's house and returned. 

Willis was now among friends. After some nights 
spent in hiding, Willis was conveyed by nocturnal 
journeys from one friendly post to another, till he 



206 TUPELO. 

reached the Federal lines at Memphis, Term. Willie 
did not change quarters till the guides were ready to 
enter upon their perilous task of guiding a band of 
Unionists, of which Willis was one, to the Federal 
lines. He said, " There is no place so safe as where 
the hounds have been." And so the experiment 
proved the adage true. Willis was not molested in 
this sylvan retreat, though the whole country north 
to the Federal lines Mas repeatedly traversed by cav- 
alry and hounds. 

M. T. Anderson, of Millersburg, Holmes Co., O., 
came to me and said : 

"Mr. Aughey,I am very sorry for you. There is 
hope for me. I am a prisoner of war. If I survive 
the horrors of imprisonment I will be exchanged, 
but for you, a prisoner of state, there is no hope ex- 
cept by eluding the vigilance of the guards and mak- 
ing your way through this great army, and traversing 
a long stretch of hostile country to the Federal lines. 
Now, sir, I am not superstitious, but I had a dream 
last night that has deeply impressed me. I thought 
that I was caught up into heaven, into the midst of 
tlie Paradise of God, and as I stood dazed amid the 
splendors of the city of the Great King, and bewil- 
dered by the light and resplendent glory that ema- 
nated from the great white throne, and Him that is 
seated thereon, I heard a voice saying, 'Who will go 
for us to earth, and deliver my servant from bonds 
and imprisonment and impending death, that he may 
longer proclaim my gospel?' Suddenly there ap- 



TUPELO. 207 

peared before the throne a form of wondrous beauty, 
apparently a young man — of radiant countenance ; 
from every feature beamed love and peace and good- 
will, who said, 'Here am I. Send me. I will go 
and deliver him and bring him safely to the desired 
haven.' ' "Who art thou ?' said the recording angel, 
who sat hard by the throne of God. 'I am Ariel, 
the lion of Jehovah, who am made strong to deliver 
his chosen ones from all their enemies that rise up 
against them to destroy them. I delivered Peter 
from Herod's dungeon, and many , saints who were 
shut up in prison have I released,' and he was bidden 
to perform the mission. And then I heard the voice 
of a multitude saying, ' Go, and Jehovah, merciful 
and gracious, mighty and strong to deliver, give thee 
abundant success.' And all the host of heaven re- 
sponded, ' Amen.' Then a voice said to me, 'Return 
and make known the vision to my servant, who in 
bonds is breaking to thee and those with thee the 
bread of eternal life.' I awoke trembling and aston- 
ished. 

"Now, I entertain more than a mere presentiment 
of your escape. I am so fully impressed with the truth 
that my dream was a revelation of God's will con- 
cerning you, that I firmly believe that these wicked 
men will not be suffered in the providence of. God to 
take your life. I predict that many, many years of 
successful labor in your Master's vineyard arc before 
you; many souls, by your instrumentality, are to be 
brought into the fold of Christ and the kingdom of 
heaven." 



208 TUPELO. 

"I wish you may not be a false prophet, and that 
your dream may be verified. The eye of faith alone 
can discern a ray of hope. Sight shows a prison, 
strong and closely guarded, a mighty army of watch- 
ful and malignant foes, chains, fetters, guards on the 
alert, pickets, -patrols, videttes, blood-hounds innu- 
merable, my sun of life apparently on the horizon's 
verge. The hour of my departure fixed. Many, 
many miles intervening between my prison and a 
place of safety — a city of refuge. A physical frame 
enfeebled by starvation and surrounding horrors 
which have been endured for many weary months, 
which are lengthening into years. It does indeed 
require strong faith to discern a ray of hope or glim- 
mer of light to irradiate the future. Next Tuesday 
ends all, my foes have decreed. If God in his prov- 
idence has longer life in store for me I will be spared. 
But I feel that I have received dying grace, and dy- 
ing grace is reserved for a dying hour. However, 
should any plan of escape present itself, I will not 
be slow to avail myself of it. But my only hope is 
in escape. The vindictive Confederate authorities 
are determined to put me to death at the hour men- 
tioned by Col. AValter. They are implacable and 
unmerciful, and it irketh them to await the ap- 
pointed hour. I would like much to live for my 
dear wife's sake, and our dear infant's sake. By 
this cruel dged of rebel hate, my wife will be wid- 
owed and my child made fatherless. But God has 
promised to be the husband of the widow and the 



TUPELO. 209 

father of the fatherless. To his covenant-keeping 
care I commit them both, and the babe unborn." 

Feeling assured that my departure from this ter- 
restrial sphere was near, I sat down upon the floor of 
my dungeon and penned the following letter to my 
wife : 

Tupelo, Military Bastile. 
My Dear Mary: 

The Confederate authorities announce to me that I 
have only a few more days to live. When you re- 
ceive this letter the hand that penned it will be cold 
in death. My soul, divested of the body, will have 
passed the solemn test before the bar of God; I have 
a good hope through grace that I will then be rejoic- 
ing amid the sacramental host of God's elect, sing-ino- 
the new song of redeeming love in the presence of 
Him who is the chief among ten thousand and the 
one altogether lovely. Mary, meet me in heaven, 
where sorrow and tears and temptation and sin are 
unknown, and where the wicked cease from troubling 
and the weary are at rest. If General Bragg will 
permit my body to be taken in charge by my friends, 
I will ask your brother, D. R. Paden, and cousin, 
Capt. Jas. H. Tankcrsley, to convey it to you. Bury 
me in the cemetery at Bethany church. That was 
my first ministerial charge. Plant a cedar at my 
head and one at my feet, and there let me repose in 
peace till the archangel's trump shall sound, sum- 
moning the dead to the judgment of the great Hay, 
and vouchsafing to saints the long hoped forredemp- 

14 



210 TUPELO. 

tion of the body. As to my property, it has all, by 
( lonfederate laws, been confiscated, and after years of 
incessant toil I leave you penniless and dependent, 
but I implore you to trust in God. To his kind, 
protecting care I commit you and our dear little Kate. 
Jehovah has promised to be the widow's husband and 
the father of the fatherless. Rest assured the Lord 
will provide. Only trust Him and love Him with 
your whole heart and soul and mind and strength. I 
know that it shall be well with them that love God. 
Be not faithless, but believing, and though clouds 
and darkness surround you at present, well-nigh ob- 
scuring the spiritual sky whence hope emanates, yet 
be assured a more auspicious day will dawn, and 
God will bring you safely to your journey's end, and 
our reunion in heaven will be sweet. 

Our dear little daughter, Kate, bring up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord. Teach her to 
walk in wisdom's ways, for all her ways are pleas- 
antness and all her paths are peace. Her infant 
mind may be compared to Avax in its susceptibil- 
ity for receiving impressions, and to marble for its 
power in retaining those impressions. Oithat she 
may be satisfied early with thy mercy, O, God, that she 
may rejoice and be glad all her days. Teach her to 
remember her Creator in the days of her youth, be- 
fore the evil days come in which she shall say, I have 
no pleasure in them. Make the* Bible, the precious 
I'il tie, her constant study, and let its words be as 
household words to her. Inspire her mind with a 



TUPELO. 211 

love of the Book which is able to makewi.se unto sal- 
vation. See to it that the words of Christ dwell 
richly in her soul, that she may be filled with knowl- 
edge and wisdom and spiritual understanding. Pray 
for the Holy Spirit to bless your labors and counsels. 
Without his blessing all your labor would be in 
vain. Pray that the third Person of the adorable 
Trinity, the Spirit of the living God, may take up his 
abode in her heart, to abide with her forever. As 
my duties in regard to instructing our child will de- 
volve solely upon you, take for your guidance in 
this respect Dent. vi. 5-9. Let your example be 
such as you would wish her to follow. Children 
are much more inclined to follow example than 
precept. Exercise care in this respect, for as is the 
mother so is her daughter. I regret that my family, 
from the force of circumstances, will be compelled to 
remain in a section where, by many, my course of 
conduct which led to my death will be considered 
disgraceful. But this cannot be avoided. The 
time, I feel sure, will come when, even in Mississippi, 
I will be regarded as a patriot martyr. My con- 
science is void of offence as regards guilt in the 
charge preferred against me.' When the wicked bear 
rule the people mourn. What cruelties are being 
perpetrated by rebels against God and their country. 
Plow long, O, Lord, how long shall the wicked tri- 
umph? How long will God forbear to execute that 
vengeance which is his, and which he will repay in his 
own erood time? T have an abiding? confidence that 



212 TUPELO. 

the right cause will prevail, and though I shall not 
live to see it, for mv days are numbered, yet I firmly 
believe since God is a God of justice and an avenger 
of the righteous who serve him faithfully, that the 
rebel power will be destroyed utterly. 

" Truth crushed to earth shall rise again — 
The eternal years of God are hers — 
But error wounded writhes in pain 
And dies amid his worshipers." 

I write this letter amid the din and confusion inci- 
dent to a large number of men crowded into a nar- 
row compass and free from all restraint. 

This letter will be conveyed to you by friends. 
The names of those friends you will know here- 
after. My real estate will be restored to you 
when the Union cause triumphs. That it will 
do so ultimately is beyond the possibility of a 
doubt. Give my love to all my friends. Remem- 
ber that I have prayed for you and our dear Kate 
unceasingly during my imprisonment, and my last 
utterances on earth will be prayers for your welfare. 
Farewell, God bless you and keep you and our dear 
child from all harm. 

Your affectionate husband, 

John H. Aughey. 

I then wrote my obituary, which I placed in the 
hands of Mr. De Grummond, a Federal prisoner, by 
whom it was to be sent to the Philadelphia Presby- 
terian for publication. I copy a portion of it: 



TUPELO. 213 



OBITUARY. 



Died in Tupelo, Itawamba county, Miss., July 15, 
1862, Rev. John H. Aughey. 

The subject of the above notice suffered death on 
the gallows at the hands of the Confederate military 
authorities, on the charges of treason and enacting 
the spy. John H. Aughey was born in New Hart- 
ford, Oneida county, X. Y., May 8, 1828. Removed 
with his parents to Steuben ville, O., July 4, 1837. 
Is an alumnus of Franklin College, New Athens, 
Ohio. His theological instructors were, Revs. L. A. 
Lowrey, Winchester, Ivy.; Jahleel Woodbridge, Baton 
Rouge, La.; John H. Gray, D.D., Geo. W. Coons, 
D.D., and Rev. J. O. Stead man, D.D., Memphis, 
Tenn.; Rev. Chas. S. Dod, Rev. H. H. Paine, and 
Rev. S. Irwin Reid, Holly Springs, Miss. Was 
licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of 
Chickasaw, October 4, 1856. Ordained to the full 
work of the ministry by the Presbytery of Tom- 
beckbee, April 19, 1861. Was married January 
22, 1857, by Rev. R. Henderson, to Miss Mary J. 
Paden, of Iuka, Miss., who, with one child, a daugh- 
ter, born September 3, 1858, survives him. God 
blessed his labors by giving him many souls as seals 
to his ministry. After eleven years labor in the 
South as an educator and minister of the gospel, 
having never injured a citizen of the South in per- 
son or property, he fell a victim to secession hatred, 
and died a felon's death, because he would not be- 



214 TUPELO. 

come a traitor to the government which had never 
in a single instance trespassed upon his rights of per- 
son or property. He rests in peace and in the hope 
of a blessed immortality beyond the grave. "Take 
ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the 
time is." Mark xiii. 33. 

"Leaves have their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
And stars to set — but all ! 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O ! Death." 

ADDRESS TO MY SOUL. 

O ! my soul, thou art about to appear in the pres- 
ence of thy Creator, who is infinite, eternal, un- 
changeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, 
justice, goodness, and truth. He cannot look upon 
sin. He is a sin-avenging God, and thou art denied 
by sin. Thy transgressions are numerous as the 
stars of heaven. Thou art totally debased by sin 
and thy iniquities abound. Thou art guilty of sins 
both of omission and commission. Justice would 
consign thee to banishment from heaven and to ever- 
last ing destruction from the presence of the Lord and 
the Glory of his power. Guilty, helpless, wretched 
as thou art, what is thy plea that sentence of eternal 
death should not be pronounced against thee? 

THE SOUL'S REPLY. 

I plead the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ whose 
blood eleanses from all sin, even from sins of the 
deepest dye. I plead the atonement made by Him 



TUPELO. 215 

who made art atonement for sin, who bore my sins 
in his own body .on the cross of Calvary and wrought 
out a perfect righteousness which I may obtain by 
simple faith. No money, no price is demanded. 
This I could not pay, for all my righteousness is but 
filthy rags, and I must perish were any part of the 
purchase price demanded. Nothing in my hand I 
bring. My salvation must be all of grace, or to me 
it would be hopeless. I trust that Christ will clothe 
me in the perfect, spotless robes of his own righteous- 
ness and thus present me faultless before the throne. 
With this trust I go to the judgment seat, assured 
that the soul that implicitly trusts in Jesus shall 
never be put to shame. He is faithful who has 
promised. 

Military Dungeon, 
Tupelo, Miss., July 11, 1862. 
My Dear Parents: 

Life is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing to behold 
the sun. All that a man hath will he give for his 
life. Having promise of the life that now is. The 
life is more than meat. They hunt for the precious 
life. These quotations from the Word of Life show 
tlie high estimate that is placed upon life. My life 
is not precious in the eyes of these virulent secession- 
ists, for their military rulers declare that on the loth 
inst. my life must terminate. Yet a few days and 
me the all-beholding sun shall see no more in all his 
course. Mourn not for me, my dear parents, as 
those who have no hope. For me to live is Christ, 



21G TUPELO. 

and I can say also with the apostle, and to die is 
gain. I fear not those who, when they have killed 
the body, have no more that they can do. But I 
fear Him whose fear casteth out every fear. When 
these lines are read by you he who penned thun will 
be an inhabitant of the Celestial City, the New Jeru- 
salem. He will have a palace home by the crystal sea, 
and be the possessor of a kingdom and a crown as 
eternal in duration as the throne of Jehovah. He will 
be reposing in his Savior's bosom in the midst of the 
Paradise of God. 

Next to God my thanks are due to you, my dear 
parents, for guiding my infant feet in the path of 
wisdom and virtue. In riper years I have been 
warned and instructed. By precept and example I 
have been led, until my habits became fixed, and 
then, accompanied by your parental blessing, I sought 
a distant home to engage in the arduous duties of life. 
Whatever success I have achieved, whatever influence 
for good I may have exerted, are all due to your 
pious training. I owe you a debt of gratitude which 
I can never repay. Though I cannot, God will grant 
you a reward lasting as eternity. It will add to that 
< x< veding and eternal weight of glory which will be 
conferred upon you in that day when the heavens 
shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with 
fervent heat. I die for my loyalty to the Federal 
Government. I know that you would not have me 
turn traitor to save my life. Life is precious, but 
death, even death on the scaifold, is preferable to dis- 



TUPELO. 217 

honor. Remember me kindly to all my friends. 
Tell Sallie, Violetta, David, Lizzie, Mary, and 
Emma, my dear sisters and brother, to meet me in 
heaven. I know that my Redeemer lives. Dying is 
but going home. I have taught many how to live 
and how to die happily. Now by example I am 
called to teach them how to die as becometh the 
Christian. May God in mercy grant that as my day 
my strength may be, and that in my last moments I 
may not by slavish fear bring dishonor upon my 
Master's cause, but may glorify Him in the fires. 
Remember me to my old, tried, true, and trusted 
friend, Henry Spence. I have no doubt you are con- 
stantly praying for me. I will soon be in that glo- 
rious home where prayer is lost in praise, faith is 
changed to sight, and death is swallowed up in 
victory. Farewell till we meet beyond the river. 
Your affectionate son, 

John H. Aughey. 
To David and Elizabeth Aughey, Amsterda)/), Jeffer- 
son county, Ohio. 

Central Military Prison, 
Tupelo, Itawamba Co., Miss., July 11, 18621 
Hon. Wm. II. Seward: 

Dear Sir — A large number of citizens of Mis- 
sissippi, holding Union sentiments, and who recog- 
nize no such military usurpation as the so-called 
Confederate States of America, are confined in a 
filthy prison, sadly infested with vermin, and are 



218 TUPELO. 

famishing from hunger — a sufficient quantity of food 
not being furnished us. We are separated from our 
families, and not suffered to hold any communication 
with them. "Wo are compelled under a strong guard 
to perform the most menial services, and are often 
grossly and flagrantly insulted by the officers and 
guards of the prison. The nights are very cool, after 
the torrid heat of the day. We are not furnished 
with bedding, and are compelled to lie down upon 
the hard floor of our dungeon, where refreshing sleep 
is not possible. When exhausted nature can hold out 
no longer our slumbers are broken, restless, and of 
short duration. Our property is confiscated and our 
families left destitute of the necessaries of life, all that 
they possessed, yea, all their living having been seized 
by the Confederates and converted to their own use. 
Heavy iron fetters are placed upon our limbs, and 
daily some of us are led to the scaffold or to death by 
shooting. Many are forced into the army, instant 
death being the penalty in case of refusal, thus con- 
straining us to bear arms against our country, to be- 
come the executioners of our friends and brethren, or 
to fall ourselves by their hands. 

These evils are intolerable, and we ask protection 
through you from the United. States Government. 
Please present our humble and earnest petition to his 
excellency, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United 
States, that he may take it under advisement and if 
possible afford us speedy relief. The Federal Gov- 
ernment may not now be able to release us, but we 



TUPELO. 219 

ask the protection which the Federal prisoner receives. 
Were his life taken, swift retribution would be 
visited upon the rebels by just retaliation ; one or 
more rebel prisoners would suffer death for every 
Federal prisoner whom they destroyed. 

Let this rule hold good in case of Unionists who 
are citizens of the states in rebellion. The loyal 
Mississippian deserves the same protection accorded 
the loyal Rhode Islander or Pennsylvanian. We 
ask also that our confiscated property be restored to 
us, or, in the event of our death, to our families. If 
it be destroyed, we ask that reparation be demanded 
from the rebel authorities, or that the property of 
known and avowed secessionists be sequestered to 
that use. Before this letter reaches its destination 
the majority of us will have ceased to be. The judge 
advocate, Col. H. W. Walter, of the rebel army, has 
informed the writer that he must die on the loth 
inst. We have therefore little hope that we individ- 
ually can receive any personal benefit from this peti- 
tion, even though you should regard it favorably and 
consent to its suggestions, but our families who have 
been robbed, so cruelly robbed, of all their substance, 
may, in the future, receive remuneration for their 
great losses, and should citizens of avowed secession 
proclivities who are within the Federal lines be 
arrested and held as hostages for the safety of Union- 
ists who are and may be hereafter incarcerated in 
Tupelo and elsewhere, the rebels will not dare put 
another Unionist to death. 



220 TUPELO. 

Trusting that you will deem it proper to take 
the prayers presented in our petition under advise- 
ment, and afford us the protection desired, we remain 
with high considerations of respect and esteem your 
oppressed and imprisoned fellow-citizens, 

John H. Aughey, 
Benjamin Claeke. 
B. D. Nabobs, 
John Robinson, 
And thirty-eight others. 
Two young men, Donald Street and Samuel May- 
nard, informed me to-day that they had been im- 
pressed into the rebel service. They had been taken 
prisoner at Corinth by General Pope, and had taken 
the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government, to 
which their hearts had always been loyal. Recently 
they had been arrested by Parson Ellis and six other 
guerrillas, near Rienzi, and being brought by them 
into the rebel camp, they refused to rejoin their regi- 
ments, and in consequence were immured in this 
dungeon. From the threats of the officers they ex- 
pected to be shot at any moment. They had used 
every means to banish the thoughts of death — had 
forced themselves to engage in pleasantry and mirth 
to drive away the sadness and gloom which 
oppressed them when alone, and when they recalled 
the delights of their happy homes which they would 
never see again. I counseled them to prepare to 
meet their God in peace, wisely to improve the short 
time granted them to make their peace, calling, and 



TUPELO. 221 

election sure. They* replied that they hoped all 
would be well. They had long since confessed 
Christ before men, and hoped for salvation through 
his merit alone. Still, they could not help feeling 
sad, young as they were, in the near prospect of 
death. They were both in their 20th year. 

While I was gone for water, these men were taken 
to their doom and I never saw them more. 

One morning, as I lay restless and sore, endeavor- 
ing to find some position which would be suffi- 
ciently easy to permit me to secure, even for a few mo- 
ments, the benefit of tired nature's sweet restorer — 
balmy sleep, the thought occurred that it would be 
well to attempt an escape, though it should result in 
death from the fire of the guards ; this would be by 
far preferable to death by strangulation at the rope's 
end, and in the presence of a large concourse of hoot- 
ing, jeering, yelling, infuriated rebels. I had just 
finished the preparation of the following address, to 
be delivered from the scaffold if not forbidden. I 
gave a copy to M. T. Anderson, who desired it for 
publication upon his exchange: 

ADDRESS TO BE READ FROM THE GALLOWS. 

My Unionist Friends: 

Hear the words of a man about to die. Last 
words are of solemn import. Keep them in remem- 
brance. Follow the counsels given, if they com- 
mend themselves to your judgment. The Confeder- 
ate officers have brought von here to witness my fate, 



222 TUPELO. 

that you may thus learn the penalty they deem 
proper to be inflicted for inflexible adherence to pa- 
triotic principles. They declare that I am guilty of 
treason. Who are the traitors ? I affirm that those 
who would subvert the integrity of the government 
founded by our patriotic ancestors, are the real 
traitors. Our politicians, 1 will not call them states- 
men, would first overthrow the best of governments, 
and then construct from its ruins a government 
whose corner-stone shall be human slavery. Will 
it stand? Forbid it, Almighty God ! forbid it, heaven. 
The millennium dawn is too near for God to permit 
to prosper a government organized to maintain a 
barbaric relic of the dark ages, and to preserve in- 
tact an institution subversive of all the rights of man. 
Human slavery is made a fundamental feature of the 
( 'on federate States of America — the corner-stone, as 
Alexander Stephens terms it. Should we who have no 
slaves risk life and limb in the interests of slave- 
holders, and at their bidding war against a govern- 
ment that has never trespassed upon our rights? I, 
for one, prefer death, and gladly welcome its embrace 
rather than to violate the monitions of conscience, the 
voice of reason, the decision of judgment, and the 
teachings of pious and patriotic ancestors. You be- 
lieve in state rights, so do I. State sovereignty and 
national supremacy. They are not incompatible. 
State and nation each sovereign in its own sphere. 
One needs not and has not trenched upon the prerog- 
atives of the other. A 1 pluribus unwm, one com- 



TUPELO. 223 

posed of many. Distinct as the billows, yet one as 
the sea. Forced into the army as conscripts, you are 
not warring against the government by choice. Ac- 
cept deliverance when it comes. See to it that the 
republic receives no detriment at your hands. The 
time is not far distant when the last assassin's dagger 
shall be stricken from his rebellions hand. How earn- 
estly I have prayed to be permitted to see the downfall 
of treason, but God in his wisdom declines to grant 
my petition. The government will live and flourish 
long after all its foes are dead, buried, and forgotten, 
for the memory of the wicked shall rot. It will dis- 
pense blessings to your posterity and mine, till the 
angel of Jehovah, standing with one foot on the sea 
and the other on the solid land, shall, with trumpet 
voice, proclaim that time shall be no more. It is the 
last, the best, and most benign government ever be- 
stowed upon man by Him who establishes the na- 
tions and fixes their boundaries and ordains their 
duration. Our government would be unworthy of 
respect were it impotent to enforce obedience to its 
wise, humane, and beneficent laws, and to perpetuate 
its existence, if necessary, by the complete overthrow 
of all opposing forces. The government under 
which we have as a nation so greatly prospered is 
the ordinance of God. The wheels of the chariot 
which bears it onward will ever revolve. He who 
stands in the way of its progress will be crushed as 
sure as fate. 

Although in durance vile, and in rebellious ranks 



224 TUPELO. 

perforce, your conscience, your judgment, the teach- 
ings of true wisdom, the word of God that enjoins 
obedience to lawful authority, the {patriotic utterances 
of Washington and his compatriots, should be the 
chart to direct you in the path of duty in every emer- 
gency. Firmly resolve that the republic, through 
you, shall receive no detriment. The government 
has done you no harm. Reciprocate with grateful 
hearts the benefits received from its benignant laws 
and beneficent institutions. When treason dies an 
ignominious death, be present to bury its gory corpse 
beyond the possibility of a resurrection. I see be- 
fore me many who were with us on the high hills 
and in the deep glens devising plans to resist the de- 
tested conscription. Many of your eomrades are in 
the ranks of the patriotic army aiding in crushing 
the hydra serpent head of treason and rebellion. See 
to it that they suffer no harm at your hands. May 
their lives be precious in your sight. 

a Oh, Liberty, how many crimes are committed in 
thy name," exclaimed one well known to fame, but 
we are murdered by the craven hordes of treason to 
promote the fancied interests of chattel slavery, of 
human bondage. 

I die, but the sacred cause I humbly represent will 
not perish with me on this scaffold. The roots of the 
tree of liberty, moistened by the blood of the noble 
phalanx of hero-martyrs who have perished here in 
Tupelo and on other fields, made classic and sacred 
by the outpouring of the precious blood of true 



TUPELO, 22o 

Southern patriots, will .strike deep and spread wide, 
and will send up through every pore the vital fluid 
which shall keep forever fresh and green the leaves 
of that sacred tree planted by our fathers in the 
primeval forest, under whose wide-spreading branches 
they and their children, and, we trust, their remotes! 
posterity, will find safety and freedom and peren- 
nial happiness. 

These, our murderers, would dig up the tree of 
liberty and plant in its stead the deadly upas tree of 
human bondage. Its roots would reach down and 
take hold upon perdition. The inalienable rights of 
man would perish beneath its blighting shade. 

Shall we tamely and basely surrender our God- 
given heritage of freedom to save our lives imperiled 
by treason's minions? Shall we basely betray a 
cause dearer to us than life, for the sake of ekinsr out 
a miserable, cowardly existence, purchased at the 
cost of our manhood and of every virtuous and holy 
principle? Shall we sell our birthright for a mess 
of pottage, and thus ignobly receive, as a boon gra- 
ciously accorded by these fiends incarnate who are 
thirsting for our blood, a few years' longer lease of 
life, till nature calls us to pay the inevitable debt, 
and we slink into dishonorable graves? 

No. A thousand times, no. My free soul, not 
trammeled by the fetters that bind and torture my 
body, gladly, joyfully embraces death, cxultinglv 
leaping into its outstretched arms in preference to 
the acceptance of life on terms so vile, so ignominious, 

15 



226 TUPELO. 

that were I to do so, high heaven with ire would 
spurn ray wretched soul, when seeking admission into 
Paradise, from all association with the spirits of the 
pure and good, and consign it to the doom of those 
who rebelled in heaven and on earth against the God 
who ordained the powers that be, to whom, when 
ruling by divine appointment, all are commanded to 
be subject. 

The glorious cause, in the interests of which 1 lay 
down my life, will ultimately triumph. Truth 
crushed to earth will rise again. Entertain no doubts 
on this subject. Rebellion will be utterly subverted 
as sure as the God of justice reigns, who will ever 
prosper the cause approved in heaven. 

For right is right, since God is God, 

And right the day must win; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 

To falter would be sin. 

May God subvert rebellion by the speedy over- 
throw of all its enemies and the restoration of civil 
and constitutional liberty to the people of these dis- 
tracted, discordant, belligerent, and rebellious South- 
ern states. Liberty calls upon each one of you to do 
your duty, that her blessings may be dispensed to 
and enjoyed by all. 

They love her best who to themselves are true, 
And what they dare to dream of dare to do. 

Remember my advice heretofore given on many a 
high hill and secluded, lonely glen, at the solemn 
midnight hour. I am uow ready to be offered up, 



TUPELO. 227 

and the time of my departure has come. I only ex- 
change earth for heaven — a life of warfare for a vic- 
tor's crown. Dying is but going home. Farewell, 
my friends, till we meet beyond the river where pain 
and sorrow, sin and death are felt and feared no more. 
My own and my country's enemies cannot reach me 
there to harm me. Those holy gates forever bar pol- 
lution, sin, and shame. Xone can obtain admittance 
there but followers of the Lamb. My prayer is that 
of the good Dr. Valpy: 

In peace let me resign iny breath 

And Thy salvation see; 
My sins deserve eternal death, 

But Jesus died for me. 

I have complied with the conditions upon which 
salvation is promised. I have exercised faith in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. I have exercised loving trusl 
and trusting love, and have the assurance that Jesus 
is my loving, precious Savior, in whose delightful 
presence I am about to appear. So I have nothing 
to fear. 

Once to every man and nation 

Comes a moment to decide, 
In the strife of truth and falsehood 

For the good or evil side; 
Truth is now upon the scaffold, 

Wrong is now upon the throne, 
Yet this scaffold sweeps the future, 

And behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, 

Keeping watch above his own. 



228 TUPELO. 

Weep not for me but for yourselves and your children. 
God in his righteous retribution will visit in vengeance 
for the great sins of this rebellious people. Our blood 
will be required at their hands. Those of you who 
can do so, escape for your lives, for this wicked peo- 
ple shall be crushed in the wine-press of Jehovah's 
wrath, and will be compelled to drink to the dregs 
the cup of divine vengeance. 

Though the mills of the gods grind slowly they grind exceed- 
ing small; 

Though with patience ] fe stands waiting, with exactness i '.e 
grinds all. 

I must close. Your friend and fellow-citizen of 

the state of Mississippi, and the United States of 

America, John H. Aughey. 

The prisoners who were shot suffered death in the 
following manner : A hole was dug, I can scarcely 
dignify it by the name of grave. The victim Mas 
ordered to sit with his legs dangling in it. The file 
of soldiers took position in front of their victims, 
when three balls were fired into the brain and three 
into the heart, and the body falling into this rude ex- 
cavation was immediately covered with earth. At 
first coilins were used, but of late these had been dis- 
pensed with, owing to the expense, and the increas- 
ing number of executions. In some cases the sol- 
diers purposely missed their aim. It was an odious 
duty which they endeavored to shun, and only per- 
formed it upon compulsion. If the corpse was to be 
delivered to friends they invariably tried to aim so 



TUPELO. 229 

as to wound without taking life, and many of the 
condemned have, by feigning death, escaped in this 
way. Gen. Bragg's name was a synonym for cruelty. 
He shot many of his own soldiers for trivial offenses, 
and upon the poor Unionists he had no mercy. < )ne 
of his officers said to me, "So many men are put to 
death by Bragg, and executions have become so com- 
mon that now "when they occur they scarcely excite 
remark." lie was a martinet who never failed to 
punish the most trivial offenses with great severity. 
I had not long meditated upon this subject when I 
arose, resolved upon immediate death or liberty. 
Of two evils I chose the less. My intentions were 
communicated to several prisoners, who promised me 
all the aid in their power. My fetters were exam- 
ined, and it was the opinion of Amos Deane and 
Amzi Meek that with j) roper instruments my bonds 
could be divested of the iron rods which secured the 
chain rings. A long-handled iron spoon, my knife, 
which had a file blade, and a file which one of the 
prisoners had procured from a Unionist visitor, were 
secured, and two were detached at a time to work 
upon my manacles. We went to a corner of the 
prison, and a sufficient number of prisoners stood in 
front of us to prevent the guards from observing the 
proceedings. "We changed our location frequently 
to avoid suspicion, and when officers entered, labor 
was suspended till their exit. Several prisoners were 
shot to-day, and six Unionists wen; incarcerated. A 
reign of terror had been inaugurated only equaled 



230 TUPELO. 

in its appalling enormity by the memorable French 
revolution. 

Spies ami informers in the pay of the rebel gov- 
ernment prowl through the country, using every arti- 
fice and stratagem to lead Unionists to criminate 
themselves. After this they are dragged to prison 
and to death. The cavalry dash through the country 
making daily raids, burning cotton, carrying off or 
wantonly destroying the property of loyal citizens, 
and committing depredations of every kind. 

Several prisoners resolved to attempt to escape 
with me. Our plan was to bring in from the enc'os- 
ure in the rear of the prison the ax with which we 
cut and split wood for cooking, and if possible to raise 
a plank in the floor by cutting away the wood and 
drawing the spikes, a sufficient number to stand 
around those who did the work to prevent observa- 
tion, and to make a hilarious noise so as to drown the 
sound that would be made. Then in the night we 
would get under the prison and make our way out on 
the north side through the guards who were oil' duty. 
At this time there were three guards in front of each 
door, and two on the south side of the building. On 
the north side of the prison there were no guards on 
duty, it not being thought necessary if the other sides 
were vigilantly guarded. There were, however, sev- 
eral hundred guards who, when off duty, slept on this 
side of the prison. 

When relieved they came there to sleep, and those 
whose turn it was went on duty. They were con- 



TUPELO. 231 

stantly coming and going, and during the whole night 
they kept up an incessant noise. My friends labored 
unremittingly during the day to remove the irons that 
secured the chain ring. Those who stood around us 
to prevent the observation of the guards standing in 
front of the doors told stale jokes and laughed at 
them immoderately, so as to drown the noise of the 
filing. The sun was now setting, but the ax had not 
yet been brought into the prison. Jimmie Tevis had 
hidden it under his blouse and tried to pass the 
guards with it, bnt they detected him by the protrud- 
ing helve, and made him return it. ]STow the extra 
guards had gone on duty. There were three in front 
of each door. The doors had been removed. The 
apertures we called doors. A guard was seated on 
each threshold, and one inside the building prome- 
naded the floor backward and forward throughout its 
entire length all night. During the day no guards 
were on the thresholds, nor in the building. 

While deliberating upon the best plan to pursue, 
since we had failed in securing tin' ax, Gen. Jordan 
and Col. Clare entered. I was standing in the mid- 
dle of the floor, midway between the doors, eating 
some rice which had been surreptitiously conveyed to 
me. A note accompanied the mess, deftly enclosed. 
It read : " From your sincere and sympathetic friend, 
Mrs. Lydia Runyan." Gen. Jordan came directly to 
the place where I stood, and holding a lantern in 
front of my face, said, "You are here yet, are you'.'" 
f gave an affirmative nod. " Well," said he, to Col. 



232 TUPELO. 

Clare, "I must examine this fellow's irons to see what 
is their condition." Suiting the action to the word, 
he put his hands down, and ascertaining that they 
had been tampered with, he endeavored ineffectually 
to pull off the bands. He did not notice that I could 
slip the chain rings off. "These irons," said he 
"are very insecure. Who helped you to put them 
in this condition?" I made no reply. After wait- 
ing till he was assured that I intended none, he turned 
to Col. Clare and said: "Colonel, have these irons 
welded, put handcuffs upon him, and chain him to 
that bolt in the floor. The gallows shall not be 
cheated of their due." 

Col. Clare said, "Must I do it to-night?" 

"Yes, to-night. Do it at once." 

"But," replied the colonel, "it is nearly nine 
o'clock, and I can't find a blacksmith to weld the 
irons on his ankles. The forges are out of blast at 
this hour." 

"Well, wait till morning, but do it bright and 
early." 

"All right," replied Col. Clare, "T'll have it done 
by sunrise or before." 

Alter these officers had taken their departure, the 
prisoners crowded around me and affirmed that they 
believed that there was a spy in the house in the 
guise of a prisoner. With entire unanimity they 
held the opinion that Aleck Stephens was the man. 
He was a red-haired, low-browcd, grim-visaged, 
freckle-faced, hard-featured, villainous specimen of 



TUPELO. 233 

the genus homo, who sat reticent in a corner, peering 

from under his bushy eyebrows, and rejecting all fa- 
miliarity or kind offices tendered by his fellow-pris- 
oners. All realized that I must escape that night or 
it would be too late. When chained to a bolt in the 
floor, with securely welded anklets and wearing- hand- 
cuffs, I would be in an utterly helpless condition. 
There were eleven guards on duty : three in front of 
each door, one seated upon each threshold, and one 
promenading the house, which was lighted during the 
whole night. There was also a special police force 
on duty, as some Federal prisoners who were in prison 
till some formalities took place would be sent in the 
morning to Columbus, Miss., and it Mas feared that 
they might attempt to escape ere they were sent far- 
ther south. I was seated with some Federal prison- 
ers, sending messages to my friends. I told them 
that I would slip off my chain, run by the guards, 
and that it was more than probable that I would 
draw their fire and be shot; that perhaps my man- 
gled corpse would be brought into the prison in a 
few minutes. I asked them to be sure to inform un- 
friends of the manner of my death. With this re- 
quest they promised faithfully to comply. I said, 
"Farewell, perhaps forever," and arose to make the 
hazardous attempt. 

At this moment a young man whom we nicknamed 
"Mississippi" ran up to me and said, "Parson, I 
think I have found a way by which you may escape." 
His true name, I think, was Leonard Humphrey. 



234 TUPELO. 

Said I, "What is it?" 

He replied, " I was out in the front enclosure, and 
I saw a hole by the step under the jail, and I think 
you could get under." 

"Why," I replied, "that would be impossible. 
The three guards standing in front would see me; 
the guard seated in the doorway would see me; and 
in their presence it would be impossible to get under 
the building without discovery." 

" I thought of that, and while you was preaching 
I was fixing up a plan, and by golly, I think we can 
get you off." We were permitted to go into the front 
enclosure, three at a time, at pleasure, during the 
day, and on moonlight nights till ten o'clock. He 
continued, "I must have help." He soon secured 
the requisite number, who, at the risk of immediate 
death, upon discovery, agreed to run the risk for my 
sake.' May the Lord reward them. 

He then detailed his plan. When the guard prom- 
enading the house approached we talked about the 
price of cotton or some indifferent topic. When he 
went from us we resumed the business in hand. We 
all promised implicit obedience. Just at 9:45 four 
of us went out. I went out clanking my chains, to 
lull suspicion, and they did not order me back, as 
they had done so often before. The rule required that 
but three be permitted to be in the enclosure at one 
time, but they providentially did not enforce the rule 
this time. My three fellow-prisoners stood between 
me and the guards, and entered into a fierce discus- 



TUPELO. 235 

sion with them in regard to the comparative merit of 
Mississippi and Tennessee troops. The enclosures, 
in front and rear, were formed by stakes surmounted 
by poles. Their form was a parallelogram, whose 
dimensions were about ten by sixteen feet. 'Flic 
guards became much excited, and the discussion was 
becoming loud and acrimonious. Howell Trogden, 
a prisoner, sat inside and held the guard in conversa- 
tion, who was seated on the threshold. I sat by the 
aperture under the building, removed my chain, put 
my legs under the building, and leaned my head 
upon my elbow, my elbow upon the step, upon which 
rested the guard's feet, who was seated upon the 
threshold of the prison door. My fellow-pris- 
oners, in a wordy war with the guards, were 
diverting their attention, with every appearance of 
success. I reflected that a few moments would 
decide my fate. If detected in this forlorn hope, 
this last attempt with any prospect of success, 1 
must end my life ignominiously upon the scaffold. 
In the early morning my anklets would be securely 
welded; I would be handcuffed and chained to a bolt 
in the floor of our gloomy dungeon. Then all hope 
must end, and soon my corpse would be borne into 
the presence of her whose tears were flowing, and 
who refused to be comforted, because of my ominous 
absence. 

'Tis ten o'clock; I hear the order for the relief 
guard. They come ; I see their bayonets glittering 
in the bright moonlight. The set time, the appointed 



23*j TUPELO. 

moment, pregnant with my fate, had arrived. I 
offered an ejaeulatory prayer to Him who sits upon 
the throne of heaven for protection at this critical 
moment. The guards stood within ten feet of me. 
Now they look steadily at me. I return their gaze. 
The relief guard has confronted them. They turn 
to receive it. At that moment I moved backward 
under the building and disappeared from view. The 
new guard enter upon their duty. The old guard, 
without a backward glance, march away. The 
prisoners are ordered into the dungeon. The guards 
see but three, and know that that is the highest num- 
ber permitted by regulation order within the enclos- 
ure. They did not suspect that four had been suf- 
fered to be out, in violation of orders. I was under 
the prison, but there were vigilant guards on even- 
side. We were in the midst of the great rebel army. 
The din of a multitude sounded in my ears. It seemed 
almost impossible even now to escape detection. Bur- 
dette Danner had thrown me his canteen, but it struck 
against the prison wall. It glittered in the bright 
moonlight; I was famishing from thirst, but I feared 
to seize it, though I knew that it was full of that 
precious liquid whose price was now estimated far 
above rubies. I did not wish to take any unneces- 
sary risk. The hand protruding from under the 
prison would probably be observed by the guards 
and excite their suspicion. I could hear their lowest 
tones. After awhile one of them said, -'Gilmore, I 
always do forget the countersign." The other replied, 



TUPELO. 237 

"It is ' Braxton' for to-night." Though uttered in 
an undertone, I caught it. " Well," replied hiscom- 
rade, T thought it was 'Braxton,! or ' Bragg/ or some- 
thing like that. \ won't forgit it agin." 

I crawled to the north side of the prison, and 
found that there were three apertures which would 
admit my egress. Upon reaching the first, T found 
that the guards were so numerous and so close, that 
it would be extremely hazardous to run the risk at 
this point. Crawling to the second, I remained till 
there was comparative quiet. But at the instant T was 
about to creep out, a soldier, who was lying with his 
face toward me, sat up and commenced coughing, 
and continued to cough at intervals for more than an 
hour. Finding it unadvisable to run the risk of 
detection at this point, I made my way with con- 
siderable difficulty to the third and last aperture, 
near the rear of the prison', and not far distant from 
the guards in the rear enclosure. Here exhausted 
nature could hold out no longer, and I slept. How 
long I know not. The vermin and the cold awoke 
me. Presently I heard one soldier say to another. 
'' It is 3 o'clock in the morning and we will have to 
goon duty." I felt confident that then was my time 
or never. Morning would soon appear, and my 
escape would be discovered and my re-arrest follow. 
Commending myself into the hands of (rod, and 
pleading that he Mould mercifully keep me from 
detection, and grant me safe conduct through this 
mighty host of watchful foes, 1 arose from under 



238 TUPELO. 

fehe building, and in passing two sleeping soldiers 
lying within four feet of the prison wall, I struck 
my foot against the head of one of them. I had not 
walked for so long a time without a chain, which 
necessarily compelled me to make such short steps, 
that I reeled as if under the influence of intoxicants, 
when freed from it. This made me swerve from my 
intended course and strike with my foot the head of 
the somnolent guard. He awoke, and looking at me 

in the bright moonlight, said, "Tt n you, don't 

do that again.'' He turned over and resumed his 
slumbers. He doubtless mistook -me for one of his 
comrades, who, in his awkwardness, had made the 
unintentional assault. 

In prison I had purchased a shirt, paying eleven 
dollars in gold for it, which resembled that worn by 
many rebel soldiers. This doubtless contributed to 
my escape, by warding t;ff suspicion, which would 
have been aroused at once, if I had appeared in their 
midst in citizen's dress. I was also wearing McIIat- 
ton's dark -colored pants. After proceeding a few 
steps I sat down by a stump, around which a number 
of guards were collected, some standing, some sitting, 
and some reclining. To appear at ease I took my 
knife from my pocket and commenced to whittle the 
stump and to whistle. This apparent unconcern 
may have deceived them, and contributed to ward off 
or allay suspicion. It was an almost unparalleled 
wonder that som# of them did not observe me emerge 
from underneath the prison, as the moon was shining 



TUPELO. L'.'!!! 

brightly and they were very near the prison wall in 
great numbers. Doubtless God had held their eyes 
or obscured their vision. I soon arose, returned my 
knife to my pocket, and wound my way cautiously 
among the various groups, endeavoring to reach the 
corn field to which I had made my first escape. I 
endeavored to see every vidette before lie perceived 
me. I had some narrow risks in passing them. As 
I came near the corn field, a vidette, who had been 
concealed behind a tree, appeared, evidently with the 
intention of halting me if I approached nearer. I 
halted without the order. If he had given the com- 
mand to halt, I should have given the countersign, 
Braxton, which I had learned while under the 
prison, and then have made some excuse for wander- 
ing away from my comrades. To avoid suspicion I 
resorted to a ruse which I cannot narrate. It proved 
successful. I, after a time, started toward the prison, 
till, seeing videttes in front, I fell upon the ground 
and deflected from my course toward the prison. 
After jiassing through many perils and hair-breadth 
escapes, as the least blunder would have proved fatal, 
I reached the dense woods and bore south-west. 
Kneeling down under a larch tree, I returned God 
thanks for thus far crowning my efforts with success, 
and most earnestly besought Him to continue His 
kind protecting care, to choose my path before me, 
and make it safe, that I might escape detection and 
be permitted to rejoin my family and friend? in 
safety. I had asked Him in prison to lengthen my 
life bv fifteen years, as he did Hezekiah's. 



240 TUPELO. 

1 now pursued my journey rapidly in a soul:*. 
westerly direction, choosing that which led directly 
from niv home for two reasons. The cavalry, with 
the blood-hounds, would not probably be sent in 
that direction. After listening attentively while in 
prison to the reveille and tattoo, and the din from 
the surrounding camps, I thought the coast was 
clearest in that direction, and that I could, by taking 
that route, with the greater ease evade the rebel 
pickets. I hastened onward with all possible speed, 
avoiding roads, till the sun arose. As I was rapidly 
traveling along a narrow path, I suddenly met a 
negro. He was scared. So was I. I, in a per- 
emptory tone, addressed him in quick succession, the 
following questions : 

" Where are you going? Where have you been ? 
To whom do you belong? Have you a pass?" 

"I belong," said the boy, trembling, "to Col. 
Kohlheim, I have been to wife's house, and am 
gwine back to Massa's." 

lie handed me his pass which read : "The bearer, 
Tabor, has permission to go to Major Smith's to visit 
his wife and return. Good till to-morrow evening, 
the inst." 

" Well, sir," said he, as I handed him his pass, 
" von see it am all right wid me." 

Concluding that it was not all right "wid " myself 
I hurried on. Tabor called to me ere I had gone 
twenty yards. I halted. He came up and asked me 
if" dis bill (presenting one on a Tennessee bank) was 



TUPELO. 241 

good." " Good as the bank," said I, and hurried 
onward, speedily leaving the path and turning- into 
a dense woods. Traveling on till about 12 P.M., 
judging from the vertical rays of the sun, I came to 
an open champaign country, through which \ could 
not travel with safety, in daylight. I sought a place 
in which to hide, and discovering a ditch which bi- 
sected a corn-field, I concealed myself in that. Many 
passed near me during the day. T Mas very hun- 
gry. Sullivan and Soper, Federal prisoners had 
each given me, before leaving prison, a small pieceof 
bread, which they had in their haversacks when cap- 
tured. I found both pieces were saturated with to- 
bacco. The prisoner with whom I had exchanged 
pants used tobacco, and had carried some in both 
pockets. As tobacco is very offensive to me, its 
presence upon my bread caused me to lose it. I re- 
flected on the best course to pursue in order to secur • 
the greatest degreeof safety in my flight. I thought at 
one time that it would be best to go west until I 
reached the Mississippi river, then hail a gun-boat 
and thus be saved, but T reflected that I was a long, 
long distance from that river — that there was the great 
Mississippi bottom to pass through, which was full 
of lagoons, lakes, bayous, and swamps, and that it 
was infested with bears, rattlesnakes, vipers, bull- 
snakes, centipedes, tarantulas, and venomous reptile-, 
and wild beasts of many kinds. I would also have 
to swim across the Yazoo and Tallahatchie rivers, 
which 1 feared I could not do, enfeebled as I would 

i<; 



242 TUPELO. 

be when I readied those rivers, and encumbered as I 

was with the heavy iron hands. The day ended and 
the night came. The stars, those beautiful nocturnal 
luminaries, came out in silent glory, one by one. 
Fixing my eye upon the polar star, the underground 
railroad traveler's guide, I set out bearing a little to 
the west of north. I soon reached the thick woods 
and found it very difficult to make rapid progress, 
in consequence of the dense undergrowth and obscure 
light. The bushes would strike me in the eyes, and 
often the top of a fallen tree would compel me to 
make quite a circuit. Soon, however, the moon ap- 
peared in her brightness — the old silver moon. But 
her light I found to be by far less brilliant than that oi 
the sun, and her rays were much ubscured by the dense 
foliage overhead, hence my progress was necessarily 
slow, labored, and toilsome. During the day I had slept 
but little, in consequence of the proximity of those 
who might be bitter foes, and also because of the un- 
pleasant position I occupied, as the ditch in which 1 
had concealed myself was muddy and proved a very 
uncomfortable bed. I therefore became weary, my 
limbs stiff* from travel and from the pressure of the 
heavy iron bands. Sleep overpowered me, and I lay 
down in the leaves and slept till the cold awoke me. 
I slept an hour and a hall', as I judged from the 
moon's descent. The nights are invariably cool in 
Mississippi, however sultry may have been the 
weather during the day. Arising from my uneasy 
.slumber I pressed on. My thirst, which had for 



TUPELO. 243 

some time been increasing, now became absolutely 
unendurable. I knew not where to get water, not 
daring to go near a well for fear of arrest. 1 must 
obtain water or perish. At length 1 heard some 
sucking pigs and their dam at a short distance from 
me in the woods. There seemed to be no alterna- 
tive. I must either perish or obtain some fluid to 
slake my raging thirst, so I resolved to catch one of 
the little pigs, cut its throat, and drink the blood. I 
searched for my knife, but ascertained that 1 had 
lost it. J was therefore reluctantly compelled to 
abandon my designs upon the suckling's life. As I 
went forward, the sow and her brood started up 
alarmed, and in their fright plunged into water. I 
followed fast and found a mud-hole — a perfect lob- 
lolly. The water was tepid, foul, and mingled with 
the spawn of frogs. Removing the green scum, I 
drank deep of the stagnant pool. My thirst was 
only partially allayed by this foul draught, and soon 
returned. As day dawned, I found some sassafras 
leaves, which I chewed to allay the pangs of hunger, 
but they formed a paste which I could not swallow. 
I remembered that this day was the holy Sabbath, 
but it brought neither rest to my weary frame, nor 
composure to my agitated and excited mind. 

The course decided upon as safest and best was to 
go far to the south and west, and there wait till the 
cavalry had returned from their search for me, then 
by a very circuitous route to endeavor to reach the 
Memphis and Charlestown railroad, find some Fed- 



244 TUPELO. 

eral outpost on that road, and thus be saved. About 
ten o'clock I came to an open country, and sought a 
place to conceal myself. I found a dense copse on a 
hillside, and hid within its friendly depths. I had 
about departed to the realm of dreams when I heard 
the voice of song. A human voice quickly aroused 
me. I peered out from my lair, and on an opposite 
hill I saw a gigantic Ethiopian making his way la- 
boriously. He had a plank in his hands, there was 
one underneath him upon which he was walking. 
When he reached the end of it, he laid down the 
plank he bore in his hands, stepped upon it, an 1 
reaching back he lifted the other plank, and thus lie 
wended his way. He accompanied his task by sing- 
ing a song heard often upon every southern plan- 
tation : 

My ole missus promise me, 

Dat when she die, she'd set me free. 

But she dun dead this many year ago, 

An' yer I'm a hoin de same ole row. 

Run, nigger, run, de patter-roller ketch you, 

Run, nigger, run, hit's aliuos' day. 

I'm a hoin across, I'm a hoin aroun', 

I'm a cleanin up some mo' newgroun', 

Whar I lif so hard, I lit' so free, 

Dat my sins rises up in Ironter me. 

Oh, run, nigger, run. de patter-roller ketch you, 

Run, nigger, run, hit's almos' day. 

But some ob dese days my time will come, 
I'll year dat bugle, I'll year dat drum, 
I'll see dem armies amarchiti' along, 
I'll lif my head an' iineder soug. 



TUPELO. 245 

I'll hide no more behind dat tree, 

When the angels flock ter wait on me. 

Oh, run, nigger, run, de patter-roller ketch you. 

Run, nigger, run, hit's almos' day. 

As he laid down his plank and stepped upon it, 
it slid from under his feet and he fell prone upon 
the ground. He jumped up and sang: 

"If Charley slip upon his track 
Der's danger de hounds will bring him back, 
Oh, run nigger, run, de patter-roller ketch you, 
Run, nigger, run. hit's almos' day." 

Thus he improvised his song as he wended his 
weary way. He was trying to evade the hounds by 
thus leaving no seent for them to follow. As he 
passed me he sang : 

"De pore white trash dey lives an' grows, 
Dey noze far less dan the nigger noze." 

Then he sang the chorus with *a will : 

" My name's Sam, I don't care a d — n, 

I'd radder be a nigger, dan a pore white man" 

He look around in alarm, and muttered, "Old 
Charley aiwa's dun furgit hizsef when he sings dat 
sono;." He then passed onward in silence, carrying: 
his planks with him. 

A singular noise attracting attention, as I gazed 
up the hill I saw a man descend from a tree and look 
around warily. As he passed near me, I called out, 
in a low tone, Taisez vous. 

Quickly glancing in my direction, he replied, 
•• Qui, oui." 



24b' TUPELO. 

I bade him conic to me. He did so. He had 
been in hiding for a month, and becoming hungry 
he left his lofty perch to procure the food that would 
be left at the designated spot by his wife or eldest 
daughter. He told me to await his return and he 
would share his food with me, and he assured me of 
all possible aid. As he emerged from the jungle, a 
man with fierce aspect confronted him. He told him 
to throw up his hands. I had accompanied him and 
was about to retreat with all possible speed, but the 
thought of abandoning my friend restrained me. 1 
determined to stand by him and abide the result. 
My friend refused to throw up his hands. He said 
he preferred to die there and then in preference to 
submitting to be bound. This man, who I learned 
was known as Col. Ned Barry, ordered us to march 
in front of him, or if we hesitated he would let us 
have the contents of his revolvers. We obeyed, 
hoping to escape by darting into the woods at some 
suitable point, or by some providential deliverance. 

As we neared a large tree, Col. Barry said : " Israel 
Nelson, I've been prowlin' around arter you for 
more 'n three weeks. Now, sir, you got ter go two 
miles from here, an' (Jen. Yerger will bed — d glad 
ter sec yer." He turned around to make this little 
speech. As he closed, and was about to advance, 
a dusky form suddenly sprang from behind the tree, 
a bludgeon descended swiftly upon the Colonel's 
skull, and our would-be captor lay unconscious at 
our feet. We found cords in his* pockets and securely 



TUPELO. 217 

l)Ound our fallen foe. Soon he returned to conscious- 
ness, and begged piteously for his life. We took 
possession of his weapons. A little boy often years 
of age appeared on the scene. He came to find his 
father. He told him that ma wanted him to come 
to the house at onee, there was strangers there to sec 
him. What should we do to secure our own safety. 
Nelson proposed shooting both father and son. We 
took them both to the copse, and with the aid of this 
Ethiopian, who had appeared at an opportune mo- 
ment, gagged both father and son, and bound thviu 
to the same tree. I urged Nelson to escape with me, 
and to leave these persons bound. He replied that 
he must see his wife, and that he would go to the 
trysting place, and she would probably be there, or 
in ease she was not there, he would find a note 
secreted near by. The note was there, but contained 
no special information. Nothing but words of com- 
fort and affectionate sympathy. 

We heard hounds, and feared to return to our 
prisoners for a long time. The African, Charley, 
had left us, and as night had dropped down upon 
the scene we cautiously returned to the copse. 

I hope never again to witness such a ghastly sight. 
The mangled remains of father and son were still ad- 
hering to the tree. Fierce hounds had torn them to 
pieces. I could no longer stay to gaze upon this sad 
tragedy. Nelson told me that he had resolved to shoot 
them both, as his safety and mine would be compro- 
mised by sparing their lives. f am glad that the 



248 TUPELO. 

terrible necessity was obviated. Nelson refused to 
abandon his family, and I could no longer delay, so 
hastened onward. 

The dismal night passed away. I found a place 
to hide — a ditch as usual. I slept, and saw in my 
dreams tables groaning under the weight of the most 
delicious viands, and brooks of crystal waters bab- 
bling and sparkling as they rushed onward in their 
meandering course, but when I attempted to grasp 
them they served me as Tantalus of olden time was 
served, by vanishing into thin air or receding from 
my grasp. While lying here, I was occasionally 
aroused by the trampling of horses grazing in the 
fields, which I feared might be bringing on my pur- 
suers. Once the voices of men mingled with the sound 
of prancing steeds upon a little bridge some twenty 
feet distant, induced me to look out from my hiding 
place, and lo ! two cavalry men, perhaps hunting for 
my life, passed along. 

When the sun had reached the zenith, I was a^ain 
startled by voices, which approached nearer and still 
nearer my place of concealment, till at length the 
cause was discovered. Several children, both black 
and white, had come from a farm house about a 
quarter of a mile distant to gather blackberries along 
the margin of the ditch. They soon discovered me 
and seemed somewhat startled and alarmed at my 
appearance. I soon saw them gazing down upon me 
in my moist bed, with evident amazement and alarm. 
Pallid, haggard, unshaven, and covered with mud, I 



TUPELO. 'J \U 

must have presented a frightful picture. As soon as 
the children passed me, fearing the report they would 
carry home, I arose from my lair and hastened 
onward. After traveling three or four miles I came 
to a dense woods bordering a stream, which had 
ceased running in consequence of the unprecedented 
drought that had for a longtime prevailed throughout 
this section of Mississippi. The creek had been a 
large one, and in the deep cavities some water still 
remained. Though warm and covered with a thick 
green scum, and mingled with the spawn of frogs, I 
drank it from sheer necessity, tepid and unwholesome 
as it was. It did not allay my thirst, but created a 
nausea which was very unpleasant. After traveling 
several hours, I came to a place where was a depres- 
sion in the ground. I thought I might possibly 
rind water. Soon the sight of water gladdened me, 
but it was stagnant and covered with a thick, greenish, 
yellowish scum. As I approached it I was startled 
by seeing the tracks of some one who I thought might 
have been a fugitive like myself. By closely observ- 
ing the footsteps and the surroundings, I discerned 
this to be the place I had left hours ago. I was 
traveling in a circle. My bewildered brain had losi 
its power to locate accurately the cardinal points. 

About 4 o'clock p.m. I was startled by the baying 
of blood-hounds behind me, and apparently upon my 
track. Before escaping from jail I had been advised 
by my fellow-prisoners to procure some onions, as 
these rubbed upon the soles of my boots would meas- 



250 TUPELO. 

urably destroy the scent. These could only be pro- 
cured by visiting a garden, and I feared to approach 
so near a house. I had not left any clothing in 
prison from which the hounds conld obtain the scent 
so as to recognize my track, and my starting in a 
south-western direction was an additional precaution 
against blood-hounds. Having heard them almost 
every night for years, as they hunted down the fugi- 
tive slave, I could not mistake the fearful import of 
their howling. I conld devise no plan for breaking 
the trail. Daniel Boone, when pursued by Indians, 
succeeded in baffling the dogs with which they pur- 
sued him by laying hold of overhanging branches and 
swin^ino; himself forward. One slave on Dick's river 
in Kentucky, near Danville, Boyle Co., ran along the 
brink of a precipice, and dug a recess back from the 
narrow path. Crawling into it, he remained concealed 
till the hounds reached that point, when he thrust 
them from the path. They fell and were dashed to 
pieces upon the jagged rocks below. Some slaves, be- 
fore escaping, provide themselves with a large sup- 
ply of cayenne pepper. When the hounds are heard 
in pursuit they set down their heels with considerable 
force so as to make as deep an impression as possible; 
they then sprinkle their tracks with the cayenne pep- 
per. The hounds, in rapid pursuit, inhale the pep- 
per. It produces such pain and irritation that they 
will not pursue any fugitive for months, and even 
then with caution so great that they are nearly worth- 
less as oeero doers. 



TUPELO. 251 

None of these plans were practicable, and I believed 
death imminent, either from being torn to pieces by 
the hounds or by being shot by the cavalry who wen' 
following hard after them. Climbing a tree, I re- 
solved to die rather than be taken back to Tupelo to 
suffer death on the gallows in the presence of a hoot- 
ing, howling, mixed multitude of infuriate demons. I 
knew that upon my refusal to come down from the 
tree a volley from their carbines would end my life. 
The tree into which I had climbed was a large black 
oak; a juniper tree stood on a knoll between the oak 
and the route by which my pursuers would approa< li. 
The oak would afford perfect concealment from obser- 
vation till my pursuers stood underneath the tree, 
then, by peering into its umbrageous recesses on all 
sides, my presence would be discovered. Oh ! how L 
wished for my navy repeater, that I might sell my 
life as dearly as possible — that ere I was slain I 
might make some secessionist bite the dust. I thought 
of the couplet in the old song : 

The hounds are haying on my track. 
Christian, will you send me hack? 

A feeling of deep sympathy arose in my heart fu- 
tile poor slave who, in his endeavor to escape from 
the iron furnace of southern slavery, encountered the 
blood-hounds and was torn to pieces by them. A 
fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind. A touch of 
sympathy makes all the world akin. Now 1 hear 
the deep-mouthed baying of the hounds. The pack 
is large, and they realize that the object of their 



252 TUPELO. 

search is near. I see them now on the crest of the 
hill but a mile distant. Down the hill they plunge. 
The cavalry follow hard after them. Men and dogs 
seem intent upon their fell purpose. Soon they will 
seize their prey, their hapless victim is almost within 
their grasp. These fierce dragoons are mentally 
gloating over the reward which they will receive for 
their bloody work. Success will be achieved ere ten 
minutes elapse. All hasten forward to be in at the 
death. Must I die as the fool dieth? Like Jezebel, 
my blood lapped by dogs, and my body devoured by 
these fierce blood-hounds and those wild swine feed- 
ing near? My friends will never learn how I per- 
ished, and 'tis be'.ter they should not know the 
horrible circumstances attending my death. Oh ! 
that I could see my dear wife and darling Kate, to 
kiss them a final farewell ere the tragic scene closes 
forever all my hopes of, and aspirations for, a long 
and happy life in their society. Now the hounds 
appear on the further brink of a ravine, a few hun- 
dred yards distant, a ravine I had crossed a short 
time before. Their loud baying, their quick, sharp 
yelps rang with frightful clearness on the summer 
air. All hope of escape died within my bosom. 
There seemed to be a pack of forty fierce hounds as 
they leaped down the steep declivity. 1 waited in 
terrible suspense their advent on the hither bank. 
The cavalry, with rattling sabers and glittering ear- 
bines, appeared on the farther bank, and halting on 
the brink. found the declivity too steep to attempt 



TUPELO. 2o-3 

the descent on horseback. A number dismounted 
and speedily disappeared within the ravine. Two 
gray foxes, driven from their covert by the noise of 
pursuit, ran by the tree in which I was concealed, 
and plunged into a cacti copse. A half-dozen men 
appeared upon the crest nearest me. The hounds 
were yet howling in the glen. They were bearing 
eastward, up the ravine, and soon the dismounted 
dragoons recrossed, and remounting began to follow- 
in that direction. On, on they went, with precipitate 
speed. The howling of the hounds and the yelling 
and horrid noise indicated that they were receding in 
the distance. Fainter and fainter the breezes bore to 
my ears the echoes of pursuit, till at length they were 
lost in the distance, and I was mercifully saved from 
a violent and horrid death. How had Divine Prov- 
idence interposed in my behalf! It long remained 
a mystery. A negro fugitive, escaping from slavery, 
had crossed my path — had gone up the ravine. The 
hounds will always leave the track of a white man 
for that of a negro. On the next afternoon they 
caught the poor slave, who had concealed himself in 
a tree, and returned him to bondage. His master 
lived in Natchez, Adams Co., and this boy, Jingo 
Dick, had absconded three months before his capture. 
I climbed down from the oak, and sat under the 
juniper tree. I sat under it a long time, returning 
thanks to God for my deliverance from a horrible 
death, yet depressed with the apparently hopeless 
prospect of ever evading my pursuers and reaching 
a place of ultimate safety. 



2")4 TCPELO. 

Soon a mocking bird from a neighboring tree began 
to sing. He seemed to mock me in my agony. 
When he ceased, a bird perched in the highest 
blanches of the same tree poured from its little throat 
a song of hope — the sweetest song I ever heard, and 
then another and another joined in glad refrain, till the 
whole grove grew vocal with their notes of joy. My 
soul, responsive to these glad strains, grew hopeful, 
and I, leaving more than half my weary burden of 
care, trudged on, homeward bound. After awhile I 
became bewildered, but soon peeping from a flowery 
dell I saw the yellow compass flower. Its polary prop- 
erty I knew. And true as the magnetic needle it 
pointed the way to the desired haven. Coming to a 
hazel dell I saw the patriotic pimpernel. Its flowers 
of red, white, and blue were closed, and I knew that a 
storm was impending. Soon the sky became overcast. 
Dark, threatening, murky clouds o'crspread the sky 
and shut out the sun. Oh! that the rain might fall 
in torr nts. I could then assuage my burning, rag- 
ing thirst. On a distant hill I saw it falling, but 
only a few drops reached me, and my consuming 
thirst remained unquenched. I had the same sensa- 
tions as Burton, one of the explorers of the Dark 
Continent. He says, "For twenty hours we did 
not taste water, the sun parched our brains and the 
mirage mocked us at every turn." As I jogged 
along, with eyes shut against the fiery air, every im- 
age that came to my mind was of water; water in 
the cool well, water bubbling from the rock, water 



TUPELO. 255 

rippling- in shady streams, water in clear lakes, invit- 
ing me to plunge in and bathe. Now a cloud seemed 
to shower upon me drops more precious than pearls, 
then an unseen hand seemed to offer me a cup, which 
I would have given all I was worth to receive. But 
what a dreary, dreadful contrast. I opened my eyes 
to a heat-reck i ng plain and a sky of that deep blue 
so lovely to painter and poet, so full of death to us 
whose only desire was rain and tempest. I tried to 
pray but could not. I tried to think, but I had only 
one idea — water, Avater, water. A cup of cold water. 
Oh ! how precious. No comparison is adequate to 
express its worth. But I will trust Him who is able 
to supply all my needs. 

" When first before his mercy seat 
I did to him my way commit. 
He gave me warrant from that hour 
To trust his mercy, love, and power." 

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." 
Becoming confused again in regard to the cardinal 
points, I fortunately came to a cemetery. In all 
( Christian lands the headstones at the graves are to 
the west. I took my bearings and traveled on in a 
north-easterly direction. The Savior said, in Matt, 
xxiv. 27, "As the lightning cometh out of the cast, 
and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the 
coming of the Son of Man be." The early Christians 
supposed that this verse taught that Christ, at the sec- 
ond advent, would appear in the east. Hence the 
burial of the dead so that in rising on the resurrec- 



256 TUPELO. 

tion morn they would face the cast. While steadily 
pursuing my weary way the faint howling of a dis- 
tant pack of hounds coming from the direction in 
which I was traveling caused mc to halt in consterna- 
tion. I was ascending a lofty hill, and was nearing 
the summit, when these ominous sounds were heard. 
It was evident they were not in search of me, for they 
were coming south, but they might accomplish my 
destruction as certainly as if they had been commis- 
sioned to effect this object. I hastened to the summit 
of the hill. A lofty umbrageous oak, a venerable 
forest king, with lateral branches near the ground, 
stood on the highest eminence. As the increasingly 
distinct baying of the hounds indicated their rapid 
approach, I resolved to climb this tree. With less 
difficulty than I had anticipated I succeeded in doing 
so. Higher and higher I ascended, till I reached 
the lofty coronal of leaves that decked this mighty 
monarch of the woods. A grand panorama was 
spread out before me. Two miles distant, in the east, 
the tents of a great encampment were spread out in 
full view. The sentries were at their posts ; the roads 
on all sides were picketed ; a general review was in 
progress, and the bustle and excitement of camp life 
was evident in all its appointments. A company of 
cavalry with blood-hounds were just coming in from 
the north. They had twenty-five or thirty men in 
charge, in citizens' dress, evidently Unionists. They 
were driving these men before them on the double 
quick. Presently I saw one fall prone upon the 



TUPELO. 25'i 

earth. Three or four cavalry men dismounted, and 
pricking him with their bayonets, compelled him to 
rise. He staggered on a short distance and fell again. 
A second time they used their bayonets, when one 
of the prisoners left his companions, and running 
to the fallen man, thrust aside the bayonets. The 
guards on foot presented their carbines. A puff of 
smoke indicated that they had discharged them. This 
man, who seemed desirous of aiding his fellow-pris- 
oner, fell upon the prostrate form of the fallen man, 
whom they now transfixed with their bayonets. After 
a few moments spent in inspecting their victims, they 
remounted their horses and rejoined their company. 
But wdiat startled me most M T as the sight of a large 
company of hunters, composed of ladies and gentle- 
men, who, spread over a considerable space, in high 
glee and with loud and boisterous halloos were pur- 
suing a bear. They were coming rapidly toward me 
from a point due north. That they would pass near 
me was evident. The bear was but a half mile in 
advance of the hounds, and they w T ere gaining rapidly 
upon him. I perceived that the bear's strength was 
waning. He seemed to be running in a direct line 
toward the tree amid whose friendly foliage I was 
concealed. A planter, whose residence was upon a 
hill to the west, had heard the hounds, and I saw him 
hastily make preparations to join in the chase. ( !olored 
men brought out several saddled horses; a number of 
hounds were unleashed and unkenneled, and several 
men mounted the horses, and with guns in hand has- 
17 



258 TUPELO. 

tened away to join in the chase. I observed that 
from the direction they took they would not be 
likely to intercept the bear. On, on, they rode, 
and ere long joined the hunters in pursuit. The 
bear, with failing strength, reached a point about 
three hundred yards from my tree, and turning his 
back against a tree, stood at bay. The dogs, as fast 
as they approached, were driven back, howling in 
agony. As the bear was on the opposite side of the 
tree, I could not see the battle. It became fierce, and 
the mingled growling of the bear and the howls and 
yells of pain upon the part of the discomfited dogs 
made for a time a perfect pandemonium. The bear 
seemed on the point of gaining a victory, but the 
hunters rode up, called off' the not reluctant hounds, 
and a volley from their carbines laid bruin dead at 
their feet. I could hear their conversation distinctly. 
The planter invited the hunters to come over and 
spend the night with him. He promised to send some 
of his slaves to flay the bear and care for the meat. 
The visitors' dogs were taken care of by the planter. 
They were leashed in his yard ; but his own hounds 
w<re allowed to roam at will all night. The negroes 
came down from the house, skinned and dressed the 
bear, and it seemed to be attractive labor to them. 
The hounds came under the tree and barked furiously. 
One of the colored men said he believed there "was 
coons up dat tree, or dem dogs wouldn't bark so fierce." 
< )ne of them said he believed he'd "go and tell mas- 
ter dat dere Mas coons in dat tree." Off he started, 



TUPELO. 259 

and soon came back to tell de boys to "kum up an' 
take keer of sum dogs dat de bear had almost killed." 
About ten o'clock I came down from the tree and 
pursued my journey in the direction of the polar star. 
I experienced greater difficulty in descending the 
tree than in the ascent. My limbs were weary; the 
fetters upon my ankles had become quite galling; 
my tongue was swollen in my mouth and cracking 
open from thirst. I had not gotten far from the 
tree when a hound, which had been lapping the blood 
of the bear, sprang toward me with open mouth. 
A well-directed blow from a club, which I took the 
precaution to secure, sent him howling away. All 
the hounds within hearing howled in concert, and 
a more frightful chorus I have never heard. I 
hastened onward as rapidly as possible, and there 
seemed to be no pursuit. I feared to deviate 
from my pathway to the right or left, as I had 
learned from my lofty point of observation, from 
my perch in the pinnacle of the lofty monarch of the 
forest, that there was a large camp to the eastward, 
and a much less formidable one to the westward ; on 
the one hand was Scylla, on the other Charybdis. 
Every hour death stared me in the face. Foes were 
lurking all around. There was but a step between 
me and death. The days of my appointed time were 
waning fast'. Hunted like a partridge upon the 
mountains, by blood-hounds and bloody men, a price 
upon my head, escape seemed impossible. 1 knew 
that prayer, fervent prayer, was continually ascending 



260 TUPELO. 

to God in my behalf. Implicitly I believed in the 
omnipotence of prayer — that no good thing will be 
denied the prayer of faith. Bnt I had no promise 
to plead for longer life. It might be the will of the 
all-wise God to call me from earth, to suffer me to 
perish, as many patriotic men had done since the in- 
auguration of rebellion, by rebel cruelty. I was never 
for an hour out of the hearing of howling hounds or 
yelping dogs. The hound ordinarily used in the pur- 
suit of fugitive slaves is a cross between a mastiff and 
the bull-dog. It is very fierce, and will assault and 
tear to pieces the fugitive as soon as caught. A hound 
sometimes used is the blood-hound of the Talbot or 
southern breed. He has long, pendulous, drooping 
ears; he is tall and square-headed; has heavy, droop- 
ing lips and jowl. He has a stern expression. He 
is broad-chested, deep-tongued, and much slower than 
the cross between the mastiff and bull-dog. His pow- 
ers of scenting are extraordinary. Let him smell 
any article of clothing that has been worn by the 
fugitive, and he will at once recognize his track and 
follow it, though it should be more than twenty-four 
hours old. Often one or two of these blood-hounds 
are kept to guide the pack. They are not so fierce 
as the other dogs, and any stout negro, by getting 
his back against a tree, so that he may not be sur- 
rounded, could defend himself with a club, and kill 
his assailants as fast as they approached. But the 
ordinary dog used to hunt the fugitive — the cross be- 
i ween the mastiff and the bull-dog — is so large, strong, 



TUPELO. 261 

and fierce that the fugitive stands but little chance to 
defend himself from the combined attack of a dozen 
of them. Were it not for the blood-hounds with 
them, he could much more readily break the trail 
and baffle pursuit. The blood-hound is in color 
tawny, with black muzzles. The former dog has 
some scenting powers, but it is as inferior in these 
to the true blood-hound as it is superior to him in 
blood-thirstiness and cruel, indiscriminate pugnacity. 
It has no utility except as a man-hunter. In hunting 
the fugitive slave men always accompany the hounds, 
and are seldom far in the rear. When the fugitive 
finds all his skill to baffle pursuit unavailing, he 
climbs a tree and awaits the arrival of the horsemen, 
who call off the hounds, order the slave to come down, 
and they then tie him up and give him one or two 
hundred lashes, well laid on, on his bare back. Then 
he is ironed and conveyed home, where he receives 
the remaining installments of the penalty due to his 
vain attempt to secure his inalienable rights — life, lib- 
erty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life, one of the 
inalienable rights which God ordains .for man, is not 
servile life. Servile life is induced by the avarice 
and cruelty of man. 

I lay down in the woods and fell asleep ; visions of 
abundance both to eat and drink haunted me, and 
every unusual sound would startle me. A fly pecu- 
liar to the South, whose buzz sounded like the voice 
of a man in his senility, often awoke me with the 
fear that mv enemies were near. As soon as Ursa 



262 TUPELO. 

Minor appeared I took up my line of march. The 
night was very dark, and I became somewhat bewil- 
dered. At length I reached a cross-roads, and as I 
was emerging from the woods I saw two videttes a 
few yards distant. As quickly and as noiselessly as 
possible, I made a retrograde movement. As I was 
retiring I heard one vidette say to his comrade, 
" Who is that ?" He replied, " It is the corporal of 
the guard." " What does he want "?" said the first. 
"O," was the reply, " I suspect he's just slipping 
around here to see if we are asleep." 

After I had reached a safe distance in the bushes, I 
lay down and slept till the moon arose. To the sur- 
prise of my bewildered brain it seemed to rise in the 
west. Taking my bearings I hastened on, through 
woods, corn-fields, and swamps. Coming to a large 
pasture in which a number of cows were grazing, I 
tried to obtain some milk, but the cows would not let 
me approach near enough to effect my purpose. My 
face was not of the right color, and my costume be- 
longed to a sex that never milked them. I traveled 
till day -break, .when I concealed myself in a cane- 
brake. I had scarcely fallen asleep, when I heard 
the sound of the reveille in a camp near by, and, lis- 
tening, distinctly heard the soldiers conversing. 
Arising, I hastily beat a retreat, and cautiously 
avoiding the videttes I traveled several hours before 
I dared take any rest. At length I lay down amid 
the branches of a fallen tree and slept. Visions of 
home and friends flitted before me. Voices sweet 



TUPELOJ '_'i-i 

and kind greeted me on all sides. The bitter taunts 
of cruel officers no longer assailed my cars. The 
loved ones at home were present, and the joys of the 
past were renewed. But, alas ! the falling of a limb 
dissipated all my fancied pleasures. The rcalitv re- 
turned. I'was still a fugitive escaping for life, and 
in the midst of a hostile country. I fancied the woful 
disappointment of the rebel officers when they learned 
that the bird had flown and that they could no longer 
wreak their vengeance upon me, nor have the pleas- 
ure of -witnessing my execution. I thanked God 
and took courage. I was still hopeful and trusting, 
often repeating a verse from one of Watts' beautiful 
hymns : 

Through mauy dangers, toils, and snares 

I have already come; 
'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, 

And grace will bring me home. 

During this night I traveled steadily, crossing 
corn-fields, woods, and pastures. I crossed but one 
cotton-field. I suspected every bush a secession ist, 
though I felt much more secure at night than in day- 
light. I avoided roads as much as possible, traveling 
on none except to cross them, and this 1 did walking 
backward, so that if the hounds found mv track the 
cavalry would be deceived when the plain tracks in 
the road indicated a false direction. Every possible 
deception was practiced by Unionists to avoid 
detection. 

The rising sun still found me pressing onward. 



264 TUPELO. 

Hunger and thirst were now consuming me. My 
tongue was swollen and cracking open from thirst. I 
thought of opening a vein in my arm and drinking 
the blood. When I had almost despaired of getting 
water, a presentiment — I may call it an assurance 1 — 
as if an inspiration from heaven, took possession of 
ray whole soul that soon I would be supplied with 
Mater. The sky was clear. No clouds indicated 
rain. I quietly walked along, as consciously sure of 
water as if I were being refreshed by it. I came to 
a road and crossed it. A gin house was visible a few 
hundred yards distant, and there was a grove near it. 
I knew that embowered within its sylvan shade was 
a plantation house. After crossing the road I came 
to a gorge surrounded by converging hills, from 
which issued a copious fountain of crystal water. 
Near it there was no trace of human foot, nor hoof 
of cattle. I seemed to be the discoverer. On be- 
holding it I wept for joy. I knelt down and in 
words of thanksgiving expressed my gratitude to 
Almighty God for this great deliverance, this spark- 
ling, life-giving liquid brewed amid the forest shades 
by the hand of Jehovah, merciful and gracious. I 
then stooped down and quaffed the living water, the 
first pure water I had tasted since my imprisonment. 
( )h ! that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
ness and feel truly grateful for his common benefits. 
Were water to become scarce men would realize its 
worth. Blessings brighter as they take their flight. 
I remained at this spring four hours, quaffing its 



TUPELO. 265 

cool, refreshing- waters. I removed my clothing and 
performed my first ablution since 1 fell into rebel 
hands, yet the irons prevented a thorough ablution. 
I named this spring Fons Yit;e. I was rejoiced 
when I discovered this spring, but not surprised, for 
I felt as fully assured of finding water as if an angel 
had spoken to me from heaven indicating its location. 
It came into my mind with the force of a revelation. 
My regret was sincere when T was compelled to leave 
this spring and continue my wearisome journey. 

Three o'clock P.M. arrived. I felt bewildered. 1 
knew not where I was. I might be near friends, I 
might be near blood-thirsty foes. I could scarcely 
walk. My iron bands had become very irksome. 
I felt that I was becoming childish. I could tell all 
my bones. I tried to pray, but could only utter, 
"God, be merciful to me a sinner." The sky became 
overcast with clouds. I could not distinguish the 
cardinal points. I therefore concealed myself and slept. 
It was night when I awoke, and the clouds still covered 
the face of the sky threateningly, concealing my 
guides, the stars of heaven, and rendering it impos- 
sible for me to proceed. Thus when I wished most 
to advance, my progress was arrested and my distress- 
ing suspense prolonged. During the night I was 
asleep and awake alternately, but could not at any 
time discern either moon or stars. I slept behind a 
fallen tree by a roadside. A horseman passed by 
at midnight. His dog, a large, ferocious animal, 
came running along by the side of the tree by which 



26(3 TUPELO. 

I was lying. When he reached me [ rose suddenly, 
and brandishing a club menacingly, the alarmed and 
howling dog incontinently and ingloriously fled, 
leaving me master of the field. The horseman 
stopped and listened. I lay silent as the grave. 
After a time, which my suspense and alarm 
doubtless magnified, he rode onward, when I 
changed my hiding place for safer quarters farther 
in the dark forest. The next morning the sun was 
obscured until nine o'clock. I guess at the time, as 
I had not my watch. I was then sick. There was 
a ringing in my ears, and I was afflicted by vertigo, a 
dimness of vision, and faintness, which rendered me 
absolutely unfit for travel. It required an hour to 
walk a quarter of a mile. Before me was a hill, the 
top of which I reached after two hours laborious as- 
cent. I despaired of getting much farther. Feeling 
confident that I must be near the point where inter- 
sect the counties of Tippah, Pontotoc, Itawamba, 
and Tishomingo, and knowing that there were many 
Unionists in that district, I resolved to call at the first 
house I came to whose appearance indicated that its 
inmates were not slave-holders. Slave-holders were 
almost invariably secessionists. If I remained in 
the woods I must perish, as a great storm was im- 
pending. If I met with a Unionist family I would 
lie saved, if with a rebel family I could but perish, 
and I felt that I could not survive the night and ap- 
proaching storm. 

Soon T came to a cabin by the side of a road, two 



TUPELO. 267 

t 

miles north of New Albany, Tippah county. The 
storm had reached me. The wind was blowing a 
gale, and the rain began to tall in torrents — just such 
a storm as visits the gulf states after a protracted 
drought. I went up to the door of the cabin and 
rapped. " Come," was the laconic response. I pullei I 
the latch-string. The door blew open and I stag- 
gered in. When the lady present looked upon me 
she threw up her hands in terror, and said : 

" Are you from Tupelo ? " 

"lam." 

"What is your name?" 

"John Hill." 

I suppressed my surname. I was not much sur- 
prised at the lady's alarm. My hair, long and un- 
kempt, covered with mud, my clothes nearly torn 
from my body by the thorns and briars in the 
ditches which bisected the fields that I was compelled 
necessarily to cross, my face pallid, the iron bands 
upon my limbs, made me present a frightful appa- 
rition to her startled gaze. And coming as the 
harbinger of a fierce storm, added doubtless to her 
terror. She, scrutinizing me closely, Mas about to 
proceed with her catechising. I forestalled her by 
turning to her husband, a man of Herculean pro- 
portions, sitting near by, saying: 

"Sir, the Yankees arc overrunning all our country. 
Why are you not in the army trying to drive them 
away?" 

The lady replied tartly, "lie's not there, and he's 



268 TUPELO. 

4 

not goin' there, either." She then animadverted 
upon Jeff Davis, the Southern Confederacy, and the 
conscript law, in terms that pleased me much. I 
never before delighted so much in hearing Jeif Davis 
abused. I felt safe, and pointing to the iron bands, 
told this couple — Mr. and Mrs. Chism — of my es- 
cape from the prison at Tupelo and the death pre- 
ordained by General Bragg. 

Their house had been searched for Maloneand me, 
and they were cognizant of our escape. Both hus- 
band and wife promised to render all possible aid. 
Mrs. Chism immediately began to prepare supper. 
I told her that I could not await the slow process of 
cooking, that I was too near starvation for that. She 
turned down the table-cloth which covered the frag- 
ments remaining from dinner, and disclosed some corn 
bread and Irish potatoes. I thought this was the sweet- 
est morsel I had ever tasted. After eating; a little 
I became quite sick, and was compelled to desist. It 
was so long since I had partaken of any substantial 
food that my stomach rebelled against it. Soon Mrs. 
Chism prepared supper, consisting of broiled chicken 
and other delicacies. The fowl was small, and I ate 
nearly the whole of it, much to the chagrin of a little 
daughter of mine hostess, whom I heard complaining 
to her ma in an adjoining room, saying, "Ma, all I 
could get of that chicken was a tiny piece of a 
wing, and wasent that gentleman a boss to eat," with 
other remarks not very complimentary to my vora- 
cious appetite. I ate too heartily after so long a 



TUPELO. 269 

last, and it caused nausea and vomiting. My stom- 
ach was too weak to bear it. After supper mine host 
endeavored to remove the heavy iron bands with 
which my ankles were encircled. Fortunately he 
was a blacksmith by vocation, and with the use ol 
the implements of his trade he succeeded. I keep 
these as sacred relics. The good lady furnished mc 
with water and a suit of her husband's clothes. 
After performing a thorough ablution I donned the 
suit, ami was completely metamorphosed and thor- 
oughly disguised, as my new suit was made lb) 1 a 
man of vastly larger physical proportions. I spent 
the night with my new friends, during which a 
heavy storm passed over, accompanied by vivid 
lightning and loud, reverberating thunder. Had I 
been out in the drenching rain in my wretched and 
enfeebled condition I must certainly have perished. 

A rebel camp was within a mile and a half, and 
horsemen clad in gray passed constantly. In the 
morning my host informed me of a Unionist who 
knew the country in the direction of Rienzi, the point 
which I now determined to reach. This gentleman 
was a near neighbor, Mr. Sauford by name. Mr. 
Chism accompanied me to a thicket near his house, 
in which I concealed myself. Before leaving 1 
handed Mrs. Chism a double eagle. She refused to 
take it. Said I, " You have saved my life." "1 
charge you nothing for that," was her laconic reply. 
I threw the money down upon tiie table and left with 
her husband. As we were departing, she said, li Well, 



270 TUPELO). 

if you get to the Federal lines you won't begrudge it, 
and if yon don't you won't need it." 

Mr. Cliisni went to the shop of Mr. Sanford, who 
was a hatter by trade. There were two rebel soldiers 
talking with him, so Mr. C. had to wait till they 
went away of their own accord. As he staid more 
than two hours I feared treachery — that he might 
have gone to the rebel camp and given information. 
I therefore left my place of concealment and ascended 
an adjacent hill and climbed a eucalyptus tree. When 
I saw Mr. Chism coming, accompanied by but one 
man, I descended. The reason for delay was given. 
Mr. Sanford said, " I am not familiar with the route 
to Rienzi, but will accompany you to my brother-in- 
law's, Mr. John Downing's, who I know is well ac- 
quainted with the road. He can take you through 
the woods so as to avoid the Confederate cavalry. 
As I undertake this at the risk of life, we must use 
ail possible precaution. You will have to spend the 
day concealed in my barn. I would gladly entertain 
you at my house, but I have a large family and many 
of them are girls, and you know that girls will talk, 
and might say something that would lead to suspi- 
cion and search, for these rebels are lynx-eyed and are 
on the alert. There are many notices affixed to trees 
and shops and posts in the most public places describ- 
ing you and offering a large reward for your capture. 
I will carry you provisions during the day, and at 
midnight we will start to Mr. Downing's. We will be 
compelled to make a large circuit to avoid the rebel 



TUPELO. 271 

camp, and to go around a spur of the mountain. We 
will have to travel forty-five miles of a circuit, while 
it is only nine miles as the raven flics." 

At one time Mr. Sanford's twin daughters came 
into the barn in search of eggs. They approached 
near my place of concealment, but did not discover 
me. When Mr. S. came with delicacies his wife had 
prepared, I informed him of it. He said, "I will 
send all my girls to their uncle's on a visit, so that 
there may be no danger of their suspicions being 
aroused. We are in daily, imminent peril. T do 
hope that the Federal troops will make haste to oc- 
cupy the country and save us from our bitter and 
malignant foes, who will soon attempt to force all 
Unionists into their army; then it will be necessary 
to leave home and escape to the Union lines." He 
brought his wife up to see me, and we sat sadly dis- 
cussing the perils and troubles surrounding the loyal 
people of the South. At length night came, and I 
slept. At midnight Mr. S. awoke me. He told me 
to mount the horse he held by the bridle. Said he, 
" That is a blooded animal of high mettle and good 
bottom, one of the swiftest horses in Tippah Co. He 
runs like a streak of lightning." I provided a good 
whip, resolving in case of danger to put my horse to 
his utmost speed. We traveled rapidly till nine 
o'clock in the morning, having to make a detour on 
account of discovering an unexpected camp. We 
must have traveled over fifty miles. When we 
reached Mr. Downing's we partook of an excellent 



272 TUPELO. 

breakfast. The guerrillas had a few nights before 
murdered a Unionist — a Mr. Newsom. His senti- 
ments had become known to the rebels. They 
watched his house till they knew of his presence at 
home. He had been in concealment, but run the risk 
of going home to see a sick daughter. They offered 
him the oath of allegiance to the Confederate states. 
He refused to take it. In their anger they resolved 
upon his immediate death. Some proposed hanging, 
some shooting, but the majority prevailed, and these 
fiends in human form, these devils incarnate, then 
deliberately heated water, and in the presence of his 
Aveeping, pleading wife and helpless children they 
scalded to death their chained and defenceless victim. 
They then suspended the corpse from a tree, with a 
label attached threatening a similar death to any who 
should remove the corpse or bury it. Thus perished 
a patriot of whom the state was not worthy. These, 
my friends, cut down the corpse by night and buried 
it in the forest. May God reward them. Oh, the 
inhumanity of man to his fellow-man. The mother- 
in-law of Mr. Newsom was a daughter of Gen. Na- 
thaniel Green of revolutionary fame. She was very 
aged. I asked her, for we stopped at her house, if 
she remembered much about the war of the revolu- 
tion. She kept repeating, " Oh, it was dreadful times. 
The British before, the Indians behind, and the tories 
in the middle." 

Ere I left Mr. Downing's there were more than 
fifty Unionists called to see me. They held a conn- 



TUPELO. Zl6 

oil, and Mr. Downing was deputed to convey me to 
the Federal lines. We immediately set out upon our 
perilous journey. 

Mr. John Downing, my guide, thought it best to 
travel by day, as the recent rains had raised the 
waters of the Hatchie and Tallahatchie rivers, both 
of which we must cross. Fording would be quite 
dangerous at night. We must follow trails, and thus 
avoid, if possible, the rebel cavalry and camps. 
There was one point of special danger at a place; 
whore stood a mill, at the base of converging lofty 
hills. We were traveling in a semi-mountainous 
country. We at length reached the summit of a very 
high hill. Far below us, winding around the base 
of this hill, which might not inappropriately be 
termed a mountain, ran the clear waters of a consid-f 
erable creek. This was the dangerous point. Here 
was a large grist mill. We hitched our horses in a 
copse and reconnoitered. Believing the coast to he 
clear, we warily descended the steep declivities, till 
at length we reached the mill. The miller appeared 
at the door and poured forth a torrent of interroga- 
tories, to all of which my guide answered warily and 
discreetly, and I thought measurably allayed his sus- 
picions. Presently we espied a covered wagon 
drawn by Sumpter mules approaching. The saddle 
marks were visible. It halted at the mill, and eleven 
Confederate soldiers emerged from underneath the 
low, dingy covering. We were about to ride on, when 
they halted us, and the following dialogue ensued 
18 



2 I 4 TUPELO. 

between my guide and the soldiers, who had been 
out on sick furlough ever since the battle of Shiloh, 
and were now returning to camp at Ripley, Miss. : 

" Hello! strangers, whar are ye from?" 

" From New Albany, Tippah county." 

"Whar ye gwine?" 

" On the hunt of stray oxen. Hev ye seen nothin' 
of a black ox and a pided (pied) ox nowhar in yer 
travels?" 

"No, we hain't." 

"Is ther any danger of meeting any Yanks on that 
road over yender?" 

" No, ther ain't. But ther's a road turns offen it 
'bout three mile from here, to ther right, that is a 
mighty dangerous road. The' Yankee cavalry's on 
it most every day. Say, who's that feller with ye? 
He jes' looks like death on a pale hoss." 

"He's my brother-in-law from Alabam. He's lied 
the aiger for more'n a year, an' ther ain't no quinine 
in the country an' he can't git it stopt. Some of 'em 
thinks he's purty well gone with quick consumption." 

"Golly, he looks like it. But what's that air 
notis up thar on the mill?" 

The miller replies, " It's a notis of a reward fer a 
prisoner that broke jail at Tupelo. Jes' read it. I 
can't," 

"Nun of us kin read. Jim Colquitt stopped back 
a piece thar to see his sister, Missis Curlee. He'll be 
along dreckly. We is to wait for him hyar. He 
kin read, an' rite, too." 



TUPELO. 275 

The miller replied, "The officer that axed me to 
stick this notis up said a prisoner that hed escaped 
before wuz follered with blood-hounds an' tuck back 
an' put in irons, but he'd broke jail agin the day be- 
fore he wuz to be hung. That old Bragg wuz all- 
fired mad about it, and offers a big reward to who- 
somever brings him back dead or alive. His name is 
Mohave or suthin like that. He is a parson an' lives 
in Rienzi, an' it's thought he's makin' fer that point." 

We were about to start, when one of the soldiers 
said, "Stranger, what mout your name be?" 

" My name is Jim Chalmette, and my brother-in- 
law's name is Oliver Folsom Brownlee, from Flor- 
ence, Alabam," said my guide. 

The soldier then said, "Can't one of you fellers 
read that air notis?" 

We rode up in front of it and Mr. Downing read 
it thus : "Ten thousand dollars reward will be paid 
for the return, dead or alive, of a prisoner who es,- 
caped from the military prison at Tupelo, Miss. His 
name is John Mohave. He is over six feet high, of 
dark complexion, heavy beard, black eyes, high 
cheek bones, and was dressed in broadcloth, somewhat 
the worse for prison wear. Any soldier who cap- 
tures him will, in addition to the cash reward, leceive 
suitable promotion. 

"Braxton Bragg, 
"Major General Commanding." 

1 thought Downing had read it correctly, till I 
rode up and read it. I felt some tremor when I rce- 



27 b' TUPELO. 

ognizetl an exact description of myself. Even the 
missing molar had been noticed. 

One of the soldiers said, " Well, stranger, that set- 
tles it. I thought afore yer read that notis as hew 
yer brother-in-law mought a ben the feller what 
broke jail, but he don't fill the bill, by odds. But 
he's got on awful fine boots an' hat. They don't suit 
them cloze, an' his cloze don't nigh fit him. They 
wuz made fer a long sight bigger man." 

" Them's a suit of my cloze he put on this mornin' 
so my wife could wash an' mend hizzen." 

"Well, I s'pose yer all right, but ther's a camp 
about three mile from hyar. You an' yer brother- 
in-law hed better let them oxen go fer awhile an' 
come with us to camp. Chalmers or Baxter will be 
thar, or mebbe old Forrest hisself. He'll be mighty 
glad to see ye, I reckon. Then ye kin explain some 
things about ye that we don't zackly understand." 

At this time we were surrounded by them, and 
Downing thought it best to express his acquiescence 
One of the soldiers presently went to the wagon, and 
producing a jug, asked us to drink with him. We 
rode to the further side of the wagon. The soldier 
then said, "Here's to Jeff Davis and the Southern 
Confederacy, wishin' 'em success and that we may 
kill a hundred Yankees apiece an' all git home safe." 

At this moment Downing said, " We must go on," 
and putting spurs to our horses we soon put consid- 
erable space between us and these soldiers. They 
railed after us to halt. Downing said, "We haven't 



TUPELO. 277 

time, howsomever we're all right." We rode on 
rapidly, thankful that we had escaped imminent 
peril. We soon came to a turn in the road. Just as 
we made the turn, we saw two men, with guns in 
their hands, on a knoll covered with a heavy growth 
of walnut trees. We were not sure whether they 
were hunters or guerrillas. They called to us to halt. 
We did so and asked them what they wanted. They 
replied that they would come to the road and tell us, 
and said, " Wait till we come to you." Downing 
said, in a low tone, " We are in danger, as we arc in 
range, and they can bring us down with their guns. 
We will wait till they get to the bottom of the hill, 
among the chaparral which- will intercept the shot if 
they fire." He then called to them to come on. 
They started toward us, and when they had reached 
the dense chaparral, we put spurs to our horses and 
galloped rapidly away. When we started, the men 
ran back up the knoll and taking aim fired at us. 
The shot from one of the guns whistled harmlessly 
through the branches of a mulberry tree under which 
we were passing. The shot from the other gun was 
more effective. One shot struck my horse in the 
flank. He reared and plunged wildly. I managed, 
however, to keep my seat. A shot struck Downing's 
saddle, and glancing inflicted a wound in the thigh. 
The men then hastened through the chaparral, and 
upon reaching the road, both fired the two undis- 
charged barrels of their guns. We were now so far 
away, and had turned a slight bend in the road, that 



278 TUPELO. 

the shot did us no injury. We, however, heard their 
patter and whistle as they passed through the 
branches of the trees in close proximity to us. 
Neither Downing nor I felt the least fear. The ex- 
citement of the moment and the comical and excited 
appearance of our would-be captors, both of whom 
had lost their hats in the bushes, excited our mirth. 
Downing said he believed the men were Porter 
Rucker and Albert Braddock, guerrillas, or partisan 
rangers, as Jeff Davis styled those who were engaged 
in hunting down Unionists, and capturing and re- 
turning to camp deserters. 

"Perhaps," said I to Downing, "it will delight 
us hereafter to recall even the present things to mind." 
" Yes, if we outlive this terrible war and survive its 
horrors. But there is not much pleasure in them 
now." 

In a short time Ave came to the road designated as 
dangerous by our would-be captors at the mill. As 
we reached it we saw in the distance ahead of us, 
on the road we were now traveling, a few straggling 
cavalrymen. They saw us and halted, apparently to 
await our overtaking them. We turned off on the 
road which the Yankee cavalry were said to fre- 
quent ere we reached them. A boy whom we over- 
took informed us that Baxter's rebel cavalry had 
just passed. They would have swift steeds to follow 
with any prospect of overtaking us. A former class- 
mate in Richmond College, Ohio, Matthew Thomp- 
son by name, was an officer under Baxter, and 




GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



TUPELO. 279 

would have recognized me had we been a few minutes 
earlier at that point, and been captured by this 
doughty rebel. Baxter's scouts infested this section 
for a long time, murdering Unionists and hunting 
with blood-hounds the poor conscripts who, having 
been forced into the Confederate service, endeavored 
to escape to the Federal lines. Baxter concocted a 
plot to capture Gen. U. S. Grant, but failed to ac- 
complish his nefarious purpose. 

Having traveled several hours after escaping Bax- 
ter's cavalry, we rode into the woods, dismounted. 
and sat down to rest and take an inventory of our 
injuries. Downing' s boot had some blood in it and 
his thigh was beginning to be quite painful. The 
left leg of his pantaloons was completely saturated. 
I examined his wound, and used Downing's knife as 
a probe, but I could not find the shot. I cut oil' a 
pieceof cloth from oneof my under garments and band- 
aged the wound to stop the hemorrhage. My horse 
had bled considerably from the wound in his flank, 
but did not show any perceptible sign of weakness or 
flagging gait. We remounted and rode on to 
Antioch or Hinkle. I think we passed through both 
these hamlets. Here Downing left me to return 
home. He must travel by a different route in re- 
turning. He would lodge that night al the house of 
a stalwart Unionist, Elihu Noble, who had recently 
moved from Ingomar. [ssaquena county, to Molino 
Del Hey. I gave him a double eagle, and we parted 
with fervent adieus and <;-ood wishes lor each other's 



280 TUPELO. 

welfare. I again assumed the role of a pedestrian, 
and ere long reached Rienzi. 

When I gazed on the star spangled banner, em- 
blem of my country's glory^ and power, beneath 
whose ample folds there was safety and protection for 
the poor, pursued, panting, perishing Unionist, and 
saw around me the loyal hosts of brave men, eager 
to subvert rebellion and afford protection to the 
wronged and persecuted southern patriot, I shed tears 
of joy. I felt that I w r as safe, my perils o'er, and 
from the depths of a grateful heart I returned thanks 
to Almighty God, who had given me my life in answer 
to importunate prayer, preserving me amid peculiar 
dangers, seen and unseen, till now I had reached the 
desired haven and was safe amid hosts of friends. 
When I reached the picket line, a horse was fur- 
nished me, and I was taken to the head-quarters of 
Col. Mizener. My brother, David H. Aughey, and 
brother-in-law, Prof. Robert K. Knight, residents of 
Rienzi, heard of my arrival and came at once to see 
and convey me to their homes. Col. M. had sent an 
orderly to report my presence. Col. Mizener re- 
quested me to report all that would be of service to 
Gen. Ro.;ecrans, who was ten miles south at Boone- 
ville, which I did, he copying my report as I gave 
it. I reported the particulars of my escape, the 
probable number of Confederate troops in and around 
Tupelo, the topography of the country, the probable 
intentions of the rebels, the putative number of 
troops sent to Richmond to re-inforce Gen. Lee, the 



TUPELO. 28] 

harsh, cruel, and vindictive treatment of the southern 
Unionists incarcerated in the bastile in Tupelo, etc. 
The Colonel requested me to go with him to visit 
Gen. Rosecrans at his head-quarters in Booneville the 
next morning, but at the hour specified reaction had 
taken place, and I was very sick. My report was 
carried up to Gen. Rosecrans by Col. Mizener, who 
immediately forwarded it to Gen. Grant at Memphis, 
who noted it and placed it on file. It has been pub- 
lished in official Records of the War of the Rebellion, 
Union and Confederate, Vol. 17, page 107. 

Gen. W. S. Rosecrans, upon hearing that I was 
sick, sent Surgeon Berridge Lucas, of an Illinois 
brigade, raised in Peoria, *I11., and Dr. ifowley, of 
the 36th 111. Infantry, to attend me during my illness. 
Under their skillful and efficient treatment I measur- 
ably regained health, though for some time I was 
apparently upon the border land, and it was feared 
that I would be a mental and physical wreck. My 
sufferings at the hands of the rebels produced a lesion 
from which I will never fully recover. Two of my 
soldier comrades have recently .succumbed to a similar 
malady, and I cannot hope to resist it much longer. 
The citadel of life must eventually yield to its force, 
and death supervene. Skillful medical treatment and 
extremely temperate habits alone have thus far held 
it in abeyance. Hardships incurred afterward in the 
service, as chaplain, aggravated the malady. 

But why should I repine since my country's in- 
tegrity and permanence has been secured, never more 



L'S2 TUPELO. 

to be imperiled by traitors to their government and 
their God? The salutary lesson they have learned 
will prevent a repetition of their folly. 

When I recovered sufficiently to leave my room 
I was honored with a serenade by a brigade brass 
band, through the politeness of Col. Bryner and 
Lieut. Col. Thrush, of the 47th 111. regiment. At 
the close they called for a speech, to which call I thus 
responded : 

Gentlemen — I desire to express my sincere thanks 
for the honor conferred. In the language of the last 
tune played by your band, I truly feel at home again, 
and it fills my soul with joy to meet my friends once 
more. What a vast difference between Tupelo and 
Rienzi. There I was regarded as a base ingrate, as 
a despicable traitor, an enemy to the country, chained 
as a felon, doomed to die, and before the execution of 
the sentence subjected to every species of insult and 
contumely. Here I meet with the kindest expres- 
sions of sympathy from officers of all ranks, from the 
subaltern to the general, and there is not a private 
soldier who has heard my tale of woe that does not 
manifest a kindly sympathy. I hope you will speed- 
ily pass south of Tupelo, but in your victorious 
march to the gulf I wish you to fare better than I 
did in my journey from Tupelo to Rienzi. Travel- 
ing day after day without food or water would cause 
you to present the emaciated appearance that I do. 
On your route, call upon the secession sympathizers 
and compel them to furnish you with all the viands 



TUPELO. 283 

that you need. My good horse, Bucephalus, I left 
at Tupelo. He is an animal of pure blood and high 
mettle. The rebel general Hardee, in the true spirit 
of secession, appropriated — that is, stole him. He 
often insolently rode him by our prison, surrounded 
by his staff. lie did not return him to me when I 
left. However, I did not call to demand him upon 
leaving. Being in haste I did not choose to spare 
the time, as I am a great eeonomist of time, and leav- 
ing in the night I did not wish to disturb the sluni- 
bers of the Tupelonians. He is a bright bay. If 
you find him you may have him gratis. I would 
much prefer that he serve the Federal army. I 
bought him of Gen. Lionel Colquitt, at AVest Point, 
Miss., for three hundred and fifty dollars. 

If you take Gen. Jordan prisoner, send me word, 
and I will furnish you with the irons with which lie 
bound me, by which you may secure him till he 
meets the just penalty of his crimes, even death, 
which he richly deserves for the murder of many 
Unionists. 

"When I became convalescent I rode to Jacinto, the 
Federal outpost nearest to my family. I called upon 
Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, who at once ordered eight 
regiments of cavalry, accompanied by a section of 
artillery, to bring them into Jacinto. I soon had 
the pleasure of beholding my wife and child, whose 
faces I recently had given up all hope of ever seeing 
upon earth. The meeting was mutually a joyful one 
Gen. Davis ushered them into his office, where I was 



284 TUPELO. 

awaiting them, and then considerately retired. My 
little daughter, during my ominous absence, would 
often try to comfort her ma by telling her, when she was 
weeping, "Ma, I think they will let pa loose, 'cause 
we pray so much for him. Don't cry, I think God 
will send him to us soon. He has said He will hear 
us when we pray." 

Richard Malone lived in Jacinto. Gen. Davis 
and I called to see him. He rejoiced greatly upon 
seeing me. He had informed Gen. Davis of my cap- 
ture and re-arrest. Gen. Davis had ordered the arrest 
of four prominent citizens of Jacinto, to be held as 
hostages for my safety. The officer was just about to 
start to execute the order when I arrived at his head- 
quarters. The citizens were named John G. Barton, 
Col. Runnels, Barton Key, and Calvin Taylor. 

When Malone reached the point where we agreed 
to meet he awaited my arrival. He gave the pre- 
concerted signals, but I came not. We agreed to meet 
at a point where a garment was suspended from a post 
of the corn-field fence. But as there may have been 
more than one garment suspended from the posts, as 
many rebel soldiers, after washing, hung their clothes 
out to dry, we mistook the place, and reached the 
corn-field at different points, and so were compelled 
to set out alone on the hazardous journey. At one 
time Malone resolved upon the risk of M r alking upon 
a road a few hundred yards to reach a forest. A 
company of cavalry came suddenly upon him and 
ordered him to go before them, declaring that they 



Tupelo. 285 

would gladly return him to prison. They made him 
go ou the double-quick. He said, presently, " T am 
very thirsty; will you give me some water?" 
They replied that they were going to that house on 
the distant hill to get water. When they reached 
the house and drew the water, Malone noticed that 
there was no dipper at the well with which to lift 
the water from the bucket. He said, "I will go 
into the house and ask for a dipper." Two cav- 
alry men followed him, and stationed themselves at 
the door. Malone went into the house, shut the 
door, and the back door being open, he ran through 
the house, opened the garden gate, ran through the 
garden, leaped over the palings at the farther end 
into a corn-field. Two women who were in the 
house ran to the door clapping their hands and ex- 
claiming, "O! your Yankee is gone, your prisoner 
has escaped." The cavalry men ran round the 
house, and seeing Malone running through the corn- 

/ O © © 

field called to him to halt. Malone, not heeding 
the order, ran onward. They fired. Malone ran 
zigzag to avoid the bullets which whistled uncom- 

© © 

fortably close to his ears. They failed to bring him 
down. They followed, but Malone outran them to a 
swamp, and after many other narrow risks reached 
his home in Jacinto. 

I returned to Rienzi. I reached Rienzi from 
prison on the day that the 2d Michigan regiment 
made a present of a fine black cavalry horse to Gen. 
Philip Sheridan. As the presentation was made in 



286 TUPELO. 

Rienzi, the general named the horse after the town, 
calling him Rienzi. This was the horse he rode in 
his famous ride from Winchester, Va., to Cedar 
creek, when he turned the tide of battle, changing an 
inglorious rout into a glorious victory over Jnbal 
Early We soon left Rienzi for the North. When 
we reached the home of my parents the rejoicing 
was as if one who was dead had been restored to life. 
They had heard through war correspondents with 
the army of my imprisonment, escape, re-arrest, and 
re-incarceration. They had not heard of my second 
escape. Thirteen days after our arrival at my 
father's house a son was born to us, August 20th, 
1862, whom we named John Knox. Our third 
child, Gertrude Evangeline, was born February 12, 
1867. Our first child, Anna Katharine, now Mrs. 
Ferguson, of Congress, O., was born September 3, 
1858. 

As soon as I felt able to do so, I accepted the po- 
sition of chaplain, first in the army of the Potomac, 
afterwards in the western army. The officers of the 6th 
111. calvary, of which I was chaplain, asked me at 
one time to give them an address on the subject of 
my arrest, imprisonment, and escapes. I complied 
with their invitation. At the close of the address, a 
soldier who had deserted from the rebel army and 
was now a member of a company in our regiment, 
canie to Col. Lynch, who at this time commanded 
the 6th 111. calvary (Col. Benjamin Grierson was 
the 1st colonel), and informed him that he was one 



TUPELO. 287 

of the guards on duty at the prison in Tupelo on the 
night of my escape. He said that I was missed in 
the morning, very early. One of the guards noticed 
my chain, which I had coiled up and left by the side 
of a little stump, inadvertently placing it on the side 
next the guards. He called the officer of the guard 
and showed him the chain. Soou many officers 
came into the prison. All the guards who had been 
on duty during the night were brought into the 
prison in irons. They thought that some of them must 
have been in collusioi with the prisoner, or he could 
not have escaped. The prisoners were strictly ques- 
tioned as to whether they knew anything in regard to 
the escape, or if any of them had rendered any assist- 
ance. They denied all knowledge of or complication 
i n the matter. One of the officers said,"God Almighty 
alone must have known and helped him. He could 
not have gotten away without assistance, and you all 
deny having rendered any." Col. Lynch said, "If 
you had known of his intention to escape, would you 
have helped him?" "No," said the soldier, "I was 
a rebel in sentiment then, and would have done my 
duty and taken stringent measures to prevent his 
escape, had I known of his intention to do so. Two 
companies of cavalry were sent in pursuit, with strict 
orders to shoot him on sight and not bring him back 
alive." But providentially they never got the sight. 
One went north toward the Federal lines. The 
other north-east. One went in sight of the Federal 
pickets near Rienzi. The other visited my father-in- 



288 TUPELO. 

law's, at Paden's mills, south-cast of Iuka. They 
again, as upon their first visit, searched the house, 
mills, negro quarters, and every crevice capable of 
secreting a hare. 

A Unionist, Washington Gortney, whose name 
I have mentioned, was murdered by a band of 
guerrillas under the lead of his nearest neighbor, 
one Bill Robinson. Gortney and Reece had en- 
listed in the Union army. Gortney desired to 
visit his family, one mile from Paden's mills. 
Reece accompanied him. Robinson heard of it, and 
gathering a few partisan rangers, murdered Gortney 
in the midst of his family. Reece was left for dead, 
but recovered. In retaliation, a company of Federal 
soldiers were sent out to burn Paden's, "Vawtcr's, 
and Robinson's mills and ten houses. This they 
accomplished, and returned. This salutary proceed- 
ing had the effect of checking guerrilla murders and 
predatory raids by them for a time. 

How terrible for a family to see and hear the 
howling hounds in search of one of their number, and 
to hear the horrid and blasphemous oaths of the 
fierce dragoons, swearing what terrible vengeance 
they will wreak upon their victim when caught and 
in their power. 

"Oh ! the inhumanity of man to his fellow-man 

Makes countless millions mourn." — 
" Oh ! Freedom ! How we love thy name, 

We who thy choicest blessings claim. 

No servile hordes now sweat and toil 

Upon our consecrated soil; 



TUPELO. 289 



No bondman's cries fall on our ears, 
No master's lash wrings scalding tears 
From women's eyes; none wildly flee 
From threatened sconrge of a Legree. 
Exempt from slavery's fearful thrall, 
Sweet Freedom's gifts now bless us all. 
And those who once did meekly bow 
Beneath the yoke are voters now." 



Memphis, Tennessee, February 12, 1888. 
Rev. John II . Aughey, Chariton, la.: 

Dear Sir — I take the National Tribune, that most 
excellent soldiers' paper. In it I noticed your re- 
quest for the address of Leslie Barksdale and others 
who were your fellow-prisoners in the South. I am 
now known as Melvin Estill, having changed my 
name for reasons which will be hereinafter given. I 
was a fellow-prisoner with you in that miserable den 
at Tupelo, Miss. Delevan Morgan, John Truesdale, 
Byron Porter, Ulysses Chenault, and I were con- 
scripted, and because of our refusal to take the oath 
and enlist we were immured in prison. AYe were 
tried by court-martial, and condemned to death, with 
the proviso that if we took the oath and entered the 
army the sentence would be suspended. We were 
given twelve hours for deliberation. You will re- 
member we consulted you, and you advised us to 
take the oath, enter the army, and desert the first 
favorable opportunity and escape to the Federal lines. 
\Ye accordingly took the oath. I think our motive 
was suspected. "We were taken to Saltillo and 
19 



290 TUPELO. 

placed under guard in an old rickety building, with 
a number of other prisoners. 

That same night we evaded the guards and escaped. 
Guided by the north star, we hastened northward 
with all possible speed. Soon after daylight we 
heard the baying of the blood-hounds ; nearer and 
nearer they came. When they came in sight three 
of our number climbed a tree. Delevan Morgan and 
I essayed to climb a large tree that stood near. 
Morgan caught hold of a withered branch. It broke 
in his grasp and he fell to the ground. He arose 
and ran. I jumped down and followed him. The 
hounds and cavalry appeared upon the scene. Our 
three companions were shot, and as they fell the 
hounds tore them limb from limb. Morgan had 
sprained his ankle, and his progress was quite slow. 
I made a detour and concealed myself behind the 
huge trunk of a fallen tree. Soon the hounds over- 
took my friend and tore him to pieces. These 
hounds were under the care of a miscreant named 
Jasper Cain, who was assisted by one Laverty Grier, 
John Graham, and others. 

I supposed that death was inevitable. Cain and 
his men held a council of war. Cain enquired, " How 
many prisoners did old Bragg say there wuz?" 
" Four," replied Grier. " Well we've got 'em all," 
replied Cain. Some one said he believed General 
Bragg said, " there wuz five," but it was decided that 
( ' it wuz only four." Cain said, " Our orders wuz, 
to take' em dead or alive. Now how will we prove to 



TUPELO. 291 

old Bragg that we killed 'em all, an' git the reward? " 
"Take their scalps," suggested Grier. "Good, 
that is a bright idea," said Cain. " Now, Laverty, 
you scalp 'em with that 'ere knife that's in your 
belt." The order was obeyed, the scalps stuck in 
Grier's belt, and the cavalcade returned to camp. 

I now hastened onward. After traveling about 
four miles I came to a cabin in a clearing. I knew 
that pursuit would not long be delayed. I went to 
the cabin and knocked. A lady came and opened 
the door. She bade me enter. I asked her if she 
was Union or Secesh. She assumed an air of great 
ignorance and stupidity, and replied, "I ain't neither, 
I'm a Baptist." That was enough for me. I felt 
sure she was all right. I at once revealed my condition, 
and told of my imminent peril. She and her daughter 
and her sick husband at once set about devising a 
plan of escape. There was a cave in the hillside about 
a half a mile distant. This lady, who was of Ama- 
zonian proportions, and her daughter, carried me to 
this cave. I found a cot within it and a little table. 
This lady, Mrs. Cameron, gave me a pair of her 
daughter's shoes in exchange for mine. Her daugh- 
ter, Miss Alverna Cameron, put on my shoes and 
traveled five miles northward to a swamp. She then 
took off my shoes and put on a pair of her mother's, 
which she had carried in her apron, and returned. 

Jasper Cain, after considerable delay reported to 
General Braxton Bragg, and told him of the fate of 
the prisoners, whom he had left nnburied, to be de- 



292f TUPELO. 

voured by wild hogs and buzzards. He then dis- 
played exultingly the scalps which he bore as a 
trophy and as a proof of having carried out the 
orders of his commanding general. "But there are 
only four scalps/' said the general, "where is the 
fifth?" "You said there wuz four prisoners what es- 
caped," said Cain. Gen. Bragg ordered Cain to 
start in pursuit of the fifth at once and to bring in 
his scalp or consequences might follow not pleasant 
for Cain to contemplate. This infuriate demon 
obeyed with alacrity, and ere long the domicile of the 
Camerons was surrounded by howling hounds and 
blaspheming rebels. Soon, however, they seemed to 
have discovered the track, and off they went pell- 
mell on the route which Miss Alverna had taken to 
mislead them. 

Miss Alverna and her mother visited me in the 
cave, bringing with them hoe cake, butter, and milk. 
The rebel soldiers had robbed them of all other pro- 
visions. I feasted upon the regale these kind ladies 
furnished me. They were delicious viands indeed to 
one who brought the sauce of hunger to the repast. 
Starvation in the rebel camp and prison had so im- 
proved my appetite that it required all they brought, lO 
appease it. Miss Alverna told me of the pursuit by 
Cain with his blood-hounds, and how she had misled 
them. They then prepared to take their departure. 
Mrs. Cameron and her daughter sang "Jesus, lover 
of my soul," and a hymn, one stanza of which I shall 
ever remember. 



TUPELO. 293 

" Savior, I look to thee, 
l>e thou not far from me 

Mid storms that lower; 
On me thy care bestow, 
Thy loving kindness show, 
Thine arms around me throw 

This trying hour." 

Miss Alverna then read the 31st Psalm. Two 
verses, the 35-6, seemed very pertinent. "My times 
are in thy hand ; deliver me from the hands of mine 
enemies and from them that perseente me. Make 
thy face to shine upon thy servant and save me for 
thy mercy's sake." Also the 13th verse, etc., "Fear 
was on every side, while they took counsel together 
against me, they devised to take away my life. But 
I trusted in thee, O Lord, I said thou art my God. 
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. 
Thou art my rock and my fortress, therefore for thy 
name's sake lead me and guide me." Mrs. Cameron 
then led in prayer, asking the Lord to deliver me 
from surrounding foes, the bears, venomous serpents, 
and still more venomous Confederates. They then 
bade me good-bye and returned home. When night 
came I feared to stay longer in my cave. I started 
off on my perilous journey toward the Federal lines. 
I lay concealed by day and traveled by night, guided 
by the polar star. 

One night I felt that I must run a great risk to 
procure some food, as I was in a starving condition. 
I found a cabin inhabited by slaves. I vent to the 
door and rapped. Soon a venerable aunty appeared 



294 TUPELO. 

at the door. I asked her for something to eat. She 
appeared alarmed, and calling a little colored boy she 
bade him guide me to a place where I should be fed. 
When I reached the terminus of my journey under 
this boy's guidance, I found a man about my own age, 
who was, like me, a fugitive bound for the Union 
army. Soon a number of kind colored people ap- 
peared, and in this swamp we were fed with all the 
luxuries procurable by these kind friends who bore 
the image of God carved in ebony. My fugitive 
friend said his name was Johnny Peterson, and that 
he lived on the Taccalceche in North Mississippi. 
After many thrilling adventures we reached the 
Union lines and were joyfully welcomed. A minis- 
ter of your church informs me that, by examining the 
year book or minutes of your general assembly, he 
learns that you are pastor of the Presbyterian church 
in the city of Chariton, Iowa. My address will be 
Memphis, Tenn., for a few months. Write me at 
your earliest convenience. 

After reaching the Federal lines both Peterson and 
I enlisted and fought through the war. Through 
fear that I might be taken prisoner and recognized, 
I changed my name, and found it almost impossible 
to resume my old name after the war. 

I am glad to know that you made your escape. 
Tell me all about it at your earliest convenience. 

Your friend, 

Melvin Estill. 



tupei.o 295 

O, woman, great is thy faith. — Jesus Christ. 

A good woman is the loveliest flower that blooms under 
heaven. — Thackeray. 

Ah me, beyond all power to name, those worthies tried and 

true, 
Good men, fair women, youth and maid, pass by in grand 

review. — Whittier. 

In the years of grace, 1881-2, I was pastor of the 
churches of Ebenezer and Good Will, in Sumter Co., 
S. C. While I was conversing with Mr. William- 
son, a merchant in Mayesville, a gentleman in front 
of his store said to another, who spoke of Judge S. 
McGowen : " The Judge has a national reputation as 
far as South Carolina is concerned." This man was 
evidently still laboring under the delusion that South 
Carolina was a sovereign, independent nation, and 
that the United States was a mere confederacy of na- 
tions to be dissolved at will by the states individually. 
The war had taught him nothing. 

In conversation with prominent citizens of Sumter 
and Mayesville I found that there was no conceal- 
ment of the frauds practiced at elections. They de- 
clared that the negroes and scalawags should not rule 
over them. They divulged to me the fraudulent 
methods by which the dominant party, though greatly 
in the minority numerically, retained their political 
power. Said I, "Suppose that congress should send 
a committee to inquire into the matter, what would 
you do?" "We would testify upon oath that there 
had been a free ballot and fair count." " Would that 



296 TUPELO. 

be morally right ? " said I. "Of two evils choose 
the less," was the reply. 

Sam. Lee, had there been a free ballot and fair 
count, would have been elected over his competitor, 
Richardson, by more than three to one. Yet Rich- 
ardson received the governor's certificate of election, 
and represented the district in congress. 

The Century magazine, in the April, 1885, No., 
publishes articles by Henry W. Grady, of Atlanta, 
Ga., and Edward P. Clarke, from which we quote. 
Mr. Clarke describes the revolution by which the 
minority overcame the majority who ruled in the 
period of reconstruction in the Carolinas, Florida, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, etc. 

" It became evident that there must be a revolution, 
and it was carried through. The negroes were in- 
timidated from going to the polls, so far as possible, 
and when violence did not suffice to keep them away, 
their ballots were tampered with and neutralized after 
they had been cast. By force or by fraud the race, 
which in several states possessed an actual numerical 
majority, was reduced into an apparent minority. 
The negro vote was practically suppressed and the 
majority ceased to rule. This result was inevitable. 
Reconstruction had sought 'to put the bottom rail 
on top/ to reverse the highest and lowest strata of 
society, to place ignorance and poverty in authority 
over intelligence and property. Such an attempt 
had never before succeeded in the world's history ; 
it could not have succeeded permanently in the South 



TUPELO. 297 

without destroying civilization. It was from the 
first only a question how soon and in what way it 
should be defeated." 

Mr. Grady's opinion is plainly inferred from the 
following, quoted from his article discussing the 
status of the freedmen : 

" As a matter of course this implies the clear and 
unmistakable domination of the white race in the 
South. The assertion of that is simply the assertion 
of the right of character, intelligence, and prop- 
perry to rule. It is simply saying that the respon- 
sible and steadfast element in the community shall 
control, rather than the irresponsible and the migra- 
tory. It is the reassertion of the moral power that 
overthrew the reconstruction governments." 

Thus in many southern states the minority repre- 
sents in Congress the suppressed majority. This is 
in direct conflict with an explicit article in the Con- 
stitution of the United States adopted for the express 
purpose of preventing this flagrant wrong. To good 
men in the southern states, to all true and loyal 
Americans, how humiliating is this oft-repeated slan- 
der upon the fair fame of the southern states, that 
only by violence practiced upon a weaker race, or by 
fraud in tampering with the ballot-box, which neces- 
sarily includes deliberate perjury, can the cause of 
good government be maintained in the South. AVe 
do not believe any such libel, but what else can be 
meant by the language quoted above. 

We cannot do better than append here an extract 



298 TUPELO. 

of <i very different kind — one that does honor to the 
hand that wrote it and the courage that pronounced 
it. We take it from the inaugural address of Pres- 
ident Cleveland. 

" In the administration of a government pledged 
to do equal and exact justice to all men, there should 
be no pretext for anxiety touching the protection of 
the freedmen in their rights or their security in the 
enjoyment of their privileges under the Constitution 
and its amendments. All discussion as to their fit- 
ness for the place accorded to them as American 
citizens is idle and unprofitable, except as it suggests 
the necessity for their improvement. The fact that 
they are citizens entitles them to all the rights due 
to that relation and charges them with all its duties, 
obligations, and responsibilities." 

The legislature was in session in Columbia. I 
visited the halls of legislation. There was a bill 
pending upon which there was much discussion. 
The bill proposed to require eight separate ballot- 
boxes and that but one voter at a time should enter 
the polling place; that no one should speak to him 
while in the polling place, and that if he failed to 
deposit his ballots in the boxes properly, his vote 
would be lost. Though the boxes were labeled, this 
would leave the illiterate voter to the almost absolute 
certainty of losing his vote. The fraudulent intent 
of the bill was patent. The Charleston News and 
Courier, commenting on this bill, says: "We have 
great confidence in the wisdom and foresight of the 



TUPELO. 299 

present General Assembly of South Carolina, and be- 
lieve that in their hands the state will be safe. They 
will not fail to remember and to act on the knowledge 
that the colored voters outnumbered the white voters 
in South Carolina, and that while the prosperity, 
nay ! the existence of the state in its present con- 
dition, depends on the supremacy of the civilization 
which the whites represent, the people of the United 
States (who have already proved themselves more 
than a match for South Carolina) will not continue 
to acquiesce in revolutionary processes, and will not 
consent to have us represented in Congress by modes 
which have been hitherto indispensable in the con- 
duct of our state affairs. But were they ? " 

It will be observed from the above quotation 
that the Charleston News and Courier admits 
the revolutionary processes, that is, fraudulent 
methods used in controlling the elections in South 
Carolina. I found no one who denied that fraud 
was resorted to to defeat the scalawags and colored 
voters. I found three colored men representing sea 
island districts. In those districts the colored popu- 
lation so greatly preponderated that they found means 
to prevent election frauds being practiced upon them. 
This may be the ultimate solution of this vexed 
question. The whites in the southern states increase 
decennially twenty percent and the negroes thirty- 
five per cent. The blacks will ultimately greatly 
outnumber the whites in that region. In the seven 
Atlantic and Gulf states, the two Carolinas, Georgia, 



300 TUPELO. 

Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the 
whites numbered in 1880, 3,814,395, and the blacks, 
3,721,481. There will be, at these proportionate 
rates of increase, in 1985, about 30,000,000 whites 
and about 1 25,000,000 blacks. This ratio of increase 
holding, the negroes will be, in one hundred years 
from this year of grace, 1885, quadruple the number 
of whites in the southern 'Atlantic and Gulf states. 
Long ere that date they will suppress with iron hand 
all attempts to defraud them of the right to exercise 
the elective franchise and to have a fair count of the 
ballots cast. 

I found peon slavery in full force in the Carolinas, 
through the labor contract system. Men hire the 
colored people to labor for them, taking as security a 
lien on the prospective crop, for supplies furnished in 
advance. At the settlement at the close of the year 
the negroes are found to be in debt, and each annual 
settlement only increases the indebtedness. The col- 
ored people may labor hard from dawn to dusk, live 
sparingly, wear the coarsest clothing, and yet end the 
year in debt. They cannot enforce their rights, 
though well assured of the frauds practiced upon 
them. 

I enquired if the Southern Presbyterian Church 
had made any provision for the education of the col- 
ored people, their former slaves. I learned that there 
was a theological seminary established at Tuskaloosa, 
Ala., for the education of young colored men who 
desired to enter the ministry. I could not learn that 



TUPELO. 301 

there was any institution under the control of the 
southern church for the education of the colored peo- 
ple in the common or higher branches. The north- 
ern church have established many good schools in the 
South, in which all the branches of a good common 
school education are taught. They have also a num- 
ber of schools of a high order, in which the classics 
and higher mathematics are very successfully taught. 
I visited the Mayesville school. Misses Kate H. 
Moorhcad and Jennie S. Hemphill, of Bridgewater, 
Beaver Co., Pa., were the very efficient teachers. There 
were enrolled 150 scholars, in every grade of pro- 
gress. These young ladies labored from dawn until 
dusk, and seemed never to weary of their arduous 
duties, which they doubtless entered upon con amove. 
Many sable children have they enlightened and evan- 
gelized. Many other schools and seminaries and 
colleges under the control of the northern church are 
doing a. noble, a grand work among the children of 
the freedmen and poor whites. 

The public school system of South Carolina and 
many other states was organized by the reconstruction 
governments, and since these have been overthrown, 
the powers that be have not abrogated it, though there 
is much opposition to this relic of "Yankee, negro, 
and scalawag rule." Revolutions seldom go back- 
ward, and it is probable that the public school system 
may survive, and by its beneficent effects overcome 
the prejudice of the ex-slaveholders against the edu- 
cation of all classes. Strange that any should oppose 



302 TUPELO. 

universal education — that glory and cheap defense of 
states and nations. 

I attended the meeting of the svnod of Atlantic, 
which was held in Columbia, S. C, in December, 
1881. I saw there a large number of educated col- 
ored men, who, as Presbyterian ministers, were 
conducting the business of synod in a very creditable 
manner. I heard some of them preach. Their ser- 
mons were earnest, lucid expositions of practical 
duties, enforced by pertinent quotations from the 
word of God. 

The moderator, Rev. Moses Aaron Hopkins, pre- 
sided with dignity and ability. On points of order 
his rulings were admirable. He afterward received 
the appointment from President Cleveland of minis- 
ter to Liberia, where he died of acclimating fever, 
lamented by the whole synod of Atlantic. Many 
colored men were present as ruling elders, represent- 
ing churches in the bounds of the synod, which 
embraces the states of North and South Carolina and 
Georgia. When I was a citizen of the South, in the 
ante bellum days, these men were all illiterate slaves, 
whom to teach the alphabet was made a crime pun- 
ishable by incarceration in the penitentiary. 

It is not wise to say that the former times were 
better than these. The change for the better seemed 
to me to indicate the millennial dawn. 

Before the war these men were helpless slaves, 
with no rights that white men felt bound to respect, 
scourged to their tasks by the lash of the cruel, brutal 
overseer, many of whom delighted in every refine- 



Turr:LO. 303 

ment of cruelty, universally denied legal marriage, 
even by masters who were professedly christians, not 
suffered to learn to read the "word of God, affirmed 
by a decision of the supreme court of the U. S. to be 
chattels personal, possessed of no rights above that of 
the ox or ass. Now the key of knowledge is placed 
in the hands of this chattel, by which he opens the 
door which gives his eager, anxious mind access to all 
the stores of intellectual wisdom and spiritual lore. 
His disabilities are yet many, through peon bondage 
and fraudulent disfranchisement, but they are no 
greater than those of the poor whites of the South, 
but he is rising in the scale of intelligence: lie is 
improving his opportunities, he is increasing and 
waxing strong in numbers and power, and the day is 
not distant when, rising to the full dignity of full- 
fledged manhood, he will assert and maintain his 
God-given rights, if need be at the cannon's mouth 
and at the point of the bayonet. He who would be 
free, himself must strike the blow. The government 
has enfranchised him, and bestowed upon him all 
civil rights, but they are in part kept back by fraud, 
but he will ere long, we trust, burst the shackles by 
which he is illegally bound and become a freeman, in 
deed, as well as in name, possessed of and enjoying 
all the rights, immunities, and franchises of an 
American citizen with which our national constitu- 
tion endows him, and which he, knowing and prizing 
even above life itself, will dare maintain as his birth- 
right forever. 

Farmington, Fulton County, Illinois. 



30-4 TUPELO. 

Iii 1883 I had an invitation to a field of labor in 
Kentucky. I went down to look at the lay of the 
land. At Bowling Green I met Col. George M. 
Edgar, who was president of a female seminary. I 
remarked to the colonel, who was a Presbyterian, 
that it was unfortunate that there were two branches 
of the Presbyterian church in that state. In many 
towns each branch has a feeble organization strug- 
gling for existence. United, their success would be 
assured, and their aggressive power quadrupled. 
The colonel replied that union could be effected in no 
other way than by the northern branch coming over 
to them with their property. They could never 
unite with a church that intermeddled with politics 
by making political deliverances, as the Northern 
General Assembly had done during the late civil 
war. They had declared slavery to be heresy, and 
secession treason and rebellion, and that as a church 
the southern branch was guilty of schism in separat- 
ing from the northern assembly. 

I replied, " Did the southern assembly ever make 
any political deliverances?" 

The colonel responded, " No, sir. I challenge you 
to point to a single one." 

I replied, "The southern assembly of 1862 took 
action, of which this is part, 'The assembly desires 
to record with its solemn approval this fact of the 
unanimity of our people in supporting a contest to 
which religion as well as patriotism now summons 
the citizens of this country, and to implore for them 



TUPELO. 30-3 

the blessing of God in the course which they are now 
pursuing. The long continued agitations of our ad- 
versaries have wrought within us a deeper conviction 
of the divine appointment of domestic servitude, and 
have led to a clearer comprehension of the duties 
we owe to the African race. We hesitate not to 
affirm that it is the peculiar mission of the southern 
church to conserve the institution of slavery and 
make it a blessing to both master and slave.' Now, 
colonel, if that be the peculiar mission of the south- 
ern church, her mission has terminated, and it might 
be well to return to the bosom of the church whence 
you departed, It may be, however, that the follow- 
ing deliverance made after slavery had been abolished 
prevents it. In 1865 the southern assembly adopted 
a long paper, in which this occurs : ' While the ex- 
istence of slavery in its civil aspects may be regarded 
as a settled question, an issue now gone, yet the law- 
fulness of the relation as a question of social morality 
and of scriptural truth has lost nothing of its impor- 
tance.' This from the assembly of 1862: 'From all 
our churches we hear the report that the ranks of 
the armies of our national independence are crowded 
with the noblest of our brethren and the choicest of 
our youth, who have rushed to the rescue of the re- 
public, driven by the impulses of patriotism in obe- 
dience to the call of God and our country. We sym- 
pathize with you as you consecrate everything dear on 
earth on the altar of patriotic duty.' Again : ' The an- 
tagonism of northern and southern sentiment on the 
20 



506 TUPELO. 

subject of slavery lies at the root of all the difficulties 
which have resulted in the dismemberment of the 
Federal Union, and have involved us in the horrors 
of an unnatural war.' In 1861 the southern assem- 
bly resolved to spend half an hour in prayer to 
Almighty God for his blessing on these Confederate 
States. * * 'The assembly met and spent the 
first half hour in special prayer for the blessing of 
God upon the cause of the Confederate States, ac- 
cording to previous order.' After many other de- 
liverances, both political and martial, in 1865, the 
southern general assembly, with most remarkable 
self-complacency, made this utterance : 'Upon no one 
subject is the mind of this assembly more clearly as- 
certained, upon no one doctrine is there a more solid 
or perfect agreement among those whom this assem- 
bly represents, than the non-secular and non-political 
character of the church of Jesus Christ.' It would 
have been a glorious thing for your religion if you 
had not mingled politics with it, for your politics are 
of such a character as to impair the worth of any re- 
ligion with which they arc mixed. Now, colonel, 
please to be silent forever hereafter as to the non- 
political character of the southern church. How 
could a Southerner, sentimentally opposed to human 
slavery, and who was a loyal citizen of the United 
States of America, remain a member of a church 
which declared slavery to be a divine institution, 
and declared resistance to the government to be true 
patriotism?" 



TUPELO. 307 

"Well/' said the colonel, "I am willing to argue 
the question of secession." 

To which I replied, "Colonel, I had hoped that 
that issue had been buried beyond the possibility of 
resurrection." 

"Sir," said the colonel, "It is mere twaddle for" 
a man to declare that a state has no right to secede." 

"Col.," I replied, "Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, 
Gen. Jackson, and many other eminent statesmen, 
both northern and southern, believed that a state had 
not the right to secede." 

" I admit that," said the Col. 

" "Well," replied I, " I prefer their twaddle to that 
of less lights." 

The Col. returned to the charge by saying that 
Virginia and some of the other states had framed a 
proviso granting the right of secession at will before 
they agreed to adopt the Federal constitution. 

Said I, "Did the other states agree to the proviso?" 

"Yes," said the Col., "they did." 

"Well, sir," I answered, "is the proviso you speak 
of inserted in the constitution of the United States?" 

"No, I believe not," admitted the Col. 

"Well, sir," I said, "if it is not written in the 
constitution of the United States, it is not of any 
binding force. But if, as you admit, it is not in the 
constitution of the United States, where is it?" 

The Col. replied that he did not know. 

" No, nor does any one else know," said I. " Your 
statement is a mere figment of the imagination. But 



308 TUPELO. 

when," I continued, "will you try to exercise this 
right of secession again." 

Col. Edgar answered, "I am as far as any one 
from ever wishing to try it again." 

" Col.," said I, " it may not do much harm to hold 
the sentiments you entertain, merely as abstract theo- 
ries, but the moment you attempt to carry them out 
in action and give them a practical bearing, there 
will be ten million bayonets ready to prevent your 
rebellious designs against our national integrity." 

" Sir," said the Col., " one who entertains and ex- 
presses the sentiments you do would not be welcomed 
as a resident of this section." 

"Sir," said I, "I have no intention of settling 
here. I suffered once, for the expression of loyal 
sentiments, the loss of all things temporal except life, 
and saved that only by the skin of my teeth." 

I said, " Good-bye, Col.," and started to leave. To 
my surprise the colonel then cordially invited me to 
visit the female seminary, at 9 o'clock the next morn- 
ing, and to take part in the opening exercises. I ac- 
cepted his invitation. At the close of the opening 
exercises, which I conducted, the colonel asked me to 
address the young ladies. I complied with his re- 
quest. I then accepted an invitation to dine with 
the colonel, who, as long as I remained in Bowling 
Green, treated me with marked courtesy. I think 
that he regretted his brusqueness. He met me on 
Saturday, and told me that on to-morrow he must 
hear his old friend and former pastor preach, Rev. 



TUFELO. 



309 



Dr. R. K. Smoot, of the state of Texas, but that if I 
should preach on the succeeding Sabbath he would 
hear me. In the helium and antebellum days the 
expression of sentiments such as I expressed would 
have met with dire punishment. Now the penalty 
is comparatively light. The world moves. I vis- 
ited the graded public schools of Bowling Green. 
Prof. AVylie, of Danville, Ind., was the very efficient 
principal. This school was conducted as successfully 
as our best northern schools, but the public school sys- 
tem of the state I found to be as yet quite inefficient. 
Progress, however, is being made. Educational in- 
terests move slowly in the South. A few years ago 
there were no public schools, and it requires time to 
create a popular sentiment that will give them a high 

degree of efficiency. 

The question of reunion is before the general as- 
semblies of both the northern and southern Presby- 
terian churches. That reunion is a consummation 
devoutly to be wished, is patent to all who have made 
this subject a matter of investigation. The southern 
church was born of rebellion. Her prominent minis- 
ters entered the arena of politics, and in sermons, 
mao-azine articles, and stump speeches urged the states 
to secede in order to the strengthening and perpetua- 
tion of the institution of slavery. After then- suc- 
cess in inducing many states to plunge madly into 
the maelstrom of secession and treason, they effected 
the organization of the general assembly of the 1 res- 
bvtcrian church in the Confederate States of America, 



310 TUPELO. 

thus linking with their church the name of the rebel- 
lious usurpation, recognizing it as a government to 
which allegiance was due, praying for its success in 
overcoming the Federal authority and in establishing 
a permanent slave-holding confederacy founded upon 
the total subversion of the rights of man. Rev. Dr. 
J. H. Thornwell, of S. C, was a leader in the seces- 
sion movement. I have heard Rev. Dr. B. M. Pal- 
mer, Revs. Carothers and Gaston, of Mississippi, 
Mitchell, of Alabama, J. N. Waddell, of Tenn., and 
many other Presbyterian ministers, all from the pul- 
pitj and some of them from the platform, discuss all 
the phases of the secession movement, urging the 
people to favor secession, as the institution of slavery 
could not otherwise be extended and perpetuated. 
This church, in its origin, history, ecclesiastical de- 
liverances, and affiliations, is so associated with and 
allied to slavery and secession that nothing but union 
with the northern church can give her proper confi- 
dence and standing with the loyal people of the 
United States of America. The southern church 
would, by reunion, be made national. It is now 
territorially confined to the former slave states. By 
union many weak churches would become strong and 
able for self-support, through the coalescing of con- 
tiguous congregations. We would no longer hear of 
the northern branch and the southern branch of the 
Presbyterian church. The schism would be at an 
end, and our glorious church would no longer be sec- 
tional but national, her boundaries being coterminous 



TUPELO. 311 

with the republic, and her evangelizing influences 
would speedily be quadrupled in their efficiency. The 
majority of the southern branch would not, if they 
could, re-establish slavery, and they regard the seces- 
sion idea as no longer tenable, and in every way they 
give their adhesion to principles made the supreme 
law of the land by the stern legislation of war. 

There are a few bourbons in the southern branch 
who an unable to forget anything or to learn any- 
thing. These bitterly oppose reunion. Did the 
majority of the southern ministers hold the senti- 
ments of this factious minority, reunion would be the 
height of fully and madness. " How could two walk 
together unless they are agreed?" at least as far as 
essentials are concerned. A committee appointed by 
the minority of the Southern General Assembly dis- 
senting from reunion have published an "open letter/' 
purporting to be the views of the protestants againsr 
reunion. Those who hold the opinions couched in 
the open letter have not been reconstructed, and 
would be a discordant element in the reunited church. 
They hold views that could not be tolerated by the 
northern branch, principles, both political and scien- 
tific, so contrary to reason, truth, and justice, that 
were they, as citizens, to attempt to give them a prac- 
tical bearing, another civil war would speedily ensue. 
Dr. W. C. Gray, editor of The Interior, says : " Rev. 
Dr. It. L. Dabney (one of the committee) is constantly 
howling, 'They have robbed us of our lawful bond- 
men.' He doubtless desires the return of the stolen 



312 TUPELO. 

properly. Nothing but full restitution and a humble 
apology would satisfy him. This would restore 
human slavery to the South." The Presbyterian Ban- 
ner thus speaks of this unreconstructed rebel : " Rev. 
Dr. Dabney seems unable to accept the new situation 
in the South, and is not in good temper with the dis- 
pensations of Providence. He does not believe that 
the southern people have any direct responsibility in 
the education of the colored people. For a man of 
Dr. Dabney's gifts and attainments to write such 
stuff as this is most strange. i The northern people 
have everywhere proclaimed that the bible teaches the 
abolition dogma, and advised them not to listen to 
any bible which does not. But we know that our 
bible condemns the abolition dogma. We cannot, 
we dare not falsify God's truth, even for the 
amiable purpose of getting access to the negro minds. 
Those who have obstructed us by falsifying and mis- 
representing God's word, must bear the responsi- 
bility/ This accords with the view adopted by the 
Southern General Assembly in 1865, just after the 
suppression of armed rebellion and the enfranchise- 
ment of the slaves, which was as follows : ' The law- 
fulness of the relation' of slavery, 'as a question of 
social morality and of scriptural truth, has lost noth- 
ing of its importance.' While the war was progress- 
ing the southern branch declared it to be the peculiar 
mission of their church to conserve the institution of 
slavery." As this cannot be done till the South be- 
comes strong enough to re-enslave her " lawful bond- 



TUPELO. 313 

men," taken violently from her by "robbers," it 
seems to be her duty to perpetuate the doctrine of 
slavery as one of "social morality and scriptural 
truth/' till it can be restored to its pristine vigor. 

This committee has decided that the question, 
" whether the allegiance of the citizen is primarily 
due to the state or to the central authority," was not 
determined by our forefathers. 

There is probably not a minister in the northern 
church who believes that political deliverance. All 
regard it as a political heresy fraught with danger, 
and as a treasonable view necessary to be suppressed 
vi et armis, if any practical bearing should be given it 
in the interests of state sovereignty and secession. 

"We believe that our fathers who framed the Fed- 
eral Constitution spoke with no uncertain sound, and 
that they formed a " perpetual union," which it was 
treason to attempt to dissever. Rev. Dr. R. K. 
Smoot, one of the committeemen, was pastor of the 
church at Bowling Green, Ky.,at the commencement 
of the war. He was a virulent and violent secession- 
ist, and did all he could to harass and annoy the 
members of his church who were loyal to the govern- 
ment. One of whom, in his rebellious wrath, he 
challanged to mortal combat in the duel, according 
to the southern code of honor. Save the mark ! At 
last he sent all of them letters of dismission, for 
which they had not applied, and thus drove them out 
of the church. "While Mr. Smoot was a student at 
Hanover College, Indiana, he was repeatedly guilty 



314 TUPELO. 

of the infraction of the college laws. The faculty 
often found it necessary to admonish and reprove 
him, but he remained obdurate and incorrigible. At 
length, Rev. Drs. Edwards and Crowe, the president 
and vice president of the college, summoned Mr. 
Smoot into their presence and advised him to send in 
his declinature longer to receive aid as a beneficiary 
of the education fund, as they deemed him unworthy 
of it. Mr. Smoot wished to know if this course were 
compulsory upon him. They replied that in case 
he declined to accept their advice, compulsory meas- 
ures would be enforced. Mr. Smoot became quite 
angry, and affirmed that this was persecution on 
account of his southern birth, and in his wrath he 
declared that he hoped that the time would speedily 
come when, in civil war, he would be able with his 
own hands to discharge a cannon loaded with grape 
and canister for the destruction of his northern ene- 
mies, and for securing southern independence and 
freedom from northern domination. Circumstances 
pointed very strongly to Mr. Smoot as the assassin 
of a Federal picket at Bowling Green, Ivy., while 
that city was in the occupancy of the Federal army 
in the civil war. 

A young man was robbed of $2,000 at a hotel in 
Louisville, Ivy. Dr. Smoot roomed with him at 
the time, and many believed that the reverend Dr. 
was the robber, as circumstances very strongly im- 
plicated him in the robbery. The minority brethren 
should have chosen a man of less unsavory reputation 
to serve on their committee. 



TUPELO. 315 

The committee state that, "It cannot be denied 
that God has divided the human race into several 
distinct groups, for the sake of keeping them apart." 
They also affirm that the "differentiation through 
color and other physical characteristics are fixed by 
the hand of God, since science fails to trace the 
natural causes by which it could be produced and 
history is silent as to the time when these changes 
occurred." Thus making their own ignorance the 
basis and proof of a false, odious, and indefensible 
theory. 

Do they really believe in the unity of the human 
race? 

Again, the committee inform us that wherever 
the people belonging to different groups have prac- 
ticed amalgamation, the result has been a stock in- 
ferior in quality to both the factors which sunk their 
superior virtues in an emasculated progeny. That 
in Mexico and South America, where the people of 
different groups have intermingled and thus en- 
feebled their offspring, we see slipping from their 
hands the reins of power. 

These last two propositions are presented as argu- 
ments to establish the first. 

Many believe that science does trace the causes of 
difference in the races of men. They regard it as din- 
to climate, food, and mode of life. They would be 
loth to accept without argument the ipse dixit of the 
committee that it is due to the miraculous interpo- 
sition of Almighty God, in order to create, propagate, 



^16 TUPELO. 

and perpetuate superior and inferior races of vu.m. 
Rev. David Livingstone, who spent many years in 
the heart of Africa, and whose subjection to climatic 
influence and food and mode of life were not differ- 
ent from that of the natives, though a Scotchman of 
fair complexion when he entered the Dark Continent, 
had become, when found by Stanley, as bronzed and 
dark as the Makololos whom he had rescued from 
the degradation of heathenism. Had he taken his 
wife and children with him to the land of Ham, after 
a few generations they would have become veritable 
negroes. There are many black Jews in Afiica. 
Climate, food, and mode of life have rendered them 
undistino-uishable from the negro. 

As to the Mexicans and South Americans losing 
power because of their mixed blood, the committee 
is at fault, not knowing the facts of history. The 
Spanish people are of unmixed blood. Their colo- 
nial possessions, one after another, in Mexico and 
South America, were, after fierce and bloody strug- 
gles on the ensanguined plains of battle, wrested from 
the Spaniards by the mixed races. Does this prove 
their inferiority? 

Many southern people pride themselves on being 
lineal descendants of Pocahontas. Are her descend- 
ants inferior in virtue or intelligence? The Ran- 
dolphs, the Bakers, the Oswalds, the Castlemans 
prove their superiority. Are the mulattoes, the quad- 
roons, and the octoroons, who are found by millions 
in the South, an emasculated progeny inferior to 



TUPELO. 317 

their mothers (their fathers are supposed to be un- 
known)? Their superior intelligence disproves the 
theory of the committee. Must we receive as truth 
all those political and scientific fallacies in order to 
induce them to unite W'ith us? The southern church 
united with the new school body in the South on the 
same basis of union as that which served as the basis 
of union — the standards pure and simple — between 
the old and new school Presbyterians in the North, 
and yet this latter union is mentioned, by this com- 
mittee, as an argument against reunion with the 
northern church. 

When I lived in the South, in the ante helium 
days, the fact that the races of men were marked by 
diversities of color and physical characteristics was 
not made an objection to miscegenation, as that Mas, 
and still is, practiced to a fearful extent in the South, 
but it was advanced by the southern people as an 
unanswerable and irrefragable argument in favor of 
thei'ight and duty of the superior to reduce to slavery 
the inferior race. The committee declare : "At the 
first we hoped to hold him (the negro) in connection 
with us in our churches, as in the old time we were 
accustomed to worship together in the house of God. 
We were slow in coming to his ground, when under 
the race instinct he demanded a church and ministry 
of his own." Just prior to this they have said, or 
rather asked the question : "How can two races be 
brought together in nearly equal numbers in those 
confidential and sacred relations which belong to the 



318 TUPELO. 

ministry of the Word without entailing that personal 
intimacy between ministry and people which must 
end in the general amalgamation of discordant races." 

Yes, there may be something of excellent reason- 
ing in this. In the old time you were accustomed 
to worship together in the house of God, and if 
that "personal intimacy in those confidential and 
sacred relations" was the true cause of that amal- 
gamation which has resulted in changing the hue of 
more than half of your former slaves, it is well to 
let them have churches and a ministry of their own. 

The committee speak as if they were in extreme 
peril, and as if, were the colored people to worship 
with the white people in nearly equal numbers, gen- 
eral amalgamation could not be avoided and would 
be the result in the near future. Your danger seems 
imminent, and we would not urge you to unite with 
the northern church if the result would be a general 
stampede of your daughters into the arms of the 
negro. It is your strong argument, your sheet anc*hor 
to keep your barque from drifting out upon the 
stormy ocean of reunion. Your wayward sons and 
daughters must be restrained. At least, there must 
be no temptation thrown in their way to induce them 
to gratify their perverted tastes and prurient desires. 
It might be well to elaborate additional arguments 
so that this impending calamity may be averted. 
Our northern missionaries and teachers who are labor- 
ing among the colored people of the South, though 
outnumbered by them twenty to one, are in no peril. 



TUPELO. 319 

No case of amalgamation has ever occurred among 
them. Their tastes and instincts will ever prevent 
a calamity so deplorable. I think it possible that 
the " race instinct," which has led the colored people 
to go out from you, will interpose a barrier to amal- 
gamation, and were you to woo them, I think you 
would not succeed in winning them back to worship 
with you as in the old time, therefore your children 
will be measurably safe. 

Re-union, desirable as it may be in certain aspects, 
could not be entertained for a moment were the ma- 
jority of the southern people found to hold the 
political, scientific, and absurd theories of the com- 
mittee. 

The northern branch has not made a deliverance 
in regard to evolution. The southern branch has 
decided, at least in part, this vexed scientific question. 
Though they will doubtless admit that the body of 
Eve, the mother of all living, was made of ossified 
dust, yet they have decided ecclesiastically that the 
body of Adam was made of dust inorganic. They 
may deem it their duty in the near future to decide 
the mooted question whether the wife of Moses was 
an Ethiopian of the negro race, or the question, "If 
the northern people will not restore to us our 'lawful 
bondmen,' what means would we be justifiable in using 
to compel them to restore to us those human chattels 
of which they have robbed us, that we may hold 
them in bondage as we did in the old time." It is 
true, as the Master teaches, that Christians are the 



320 TUPELO. 

light of the world and the salt of the earth. The 
truth of the gospel is to work like leaven until the 
whole structure of society is changed. But there is 
need of earnest hearts and strong hands to accomplish 
this result. The purpose is to permeate every de- 
partment of human life, and men are the agency. 
Wherever there is iniquity the church is summoned 
to cry aloud and spare not. When there is a sword 
in the land the danger must be exposed. Who, if 
not the church, shall dissect and denounce corruption ? 
Who, if not the church, shall expound to the state 
the principles of righteousness, and emphasize the 
importance of morality in law ? The function of the 
state is comparatively limited, but the sphere of the 
church covers the whole domain of morals and religion. 
The Bible is dogmatic against iniquity. It is the duty 
of the church to reprove sin wherever found, and strive 
for its eradication, whether in the domain of science 
or politics, whether in the state, the family, or the indi- 
vidual. The claim of the southern church is, that it 
is within its province "to conclude nothing but that 
which is ecclesiastical." Its theory and practice are 
diametrically opposed to each other. Its purely 
political deliverances are numerous, and they were 
all made in the interests of slavery and secession. 

Rev. Dr. R. L. Dabney was a member and prominent 
leader of the synod of Virginia, which, in October, 
1861, made this deliverance: "Resolved, That the as- 
sertien of their rights and separate independence by 
the Confederate States is necessary and righteous. 



tupelo. :;-Jl 

* * * * "* * The question of civil alle- 
giance lias been p>opeily determined as to us by the 
commonwealth of which we are citizens." Now he 
joins in condemning the northern church for "a pal- 
pable Invasion of the province of the state," in de- 
ciding a political question. O, consistency, thou art 
a jewel ! 

The Philadelphia Presbyterian, of April 21, 1888, 
noticing the southern digest, among other things, 
says: " It is somewhat amusing to see that the south- 
ern assembly in 1861 approved a clause in the con- 
stitution of the Confederate States." 

From the synod of North Carolina, in 1861, we 
have this deliverance: "Resolved, That the synod 
sits appointed by her Divine Head as a witness for 
the right and for truth, truly sympathizes with the 
state and with the Confederate States in their present 
righteous struggle, and cordially approves their action 
in asserting and maintaining their sovereignty and 
severing the ties that bound us to the late United 
States of America." 

From the presbytery of Charleston, July 24, 1861, 
we have this deliverance: "We do most heartily, 
with the full approval of our conscience before our 
Lord God, unanimously approve the action of the state 
and people of the Confederate States of America." 

\Yhen the southern general assembly, which were 
holding their sessions in Baltimore in 1888, adjourned 
to Philadelphia to unite with the northern general 
assembly in the centennial celebration of the organiza- 



322 tupei.o. 

tion of the general assembly in 1788, Rev. Dr. Bul- 
lock, the moderator of the southern assembly, re- 
peatedly alluded to the southern church by the ap- 
pellation of the Presbyterian church of North 
America. He thus seemed to ignore the United 
States of America. Was this designed or accidental? 
Is it true that the name of the southern church has 
been changed so as no longer to recognize the United 
States? Has the southern branch ever made a loyal 
deliverance since their secession and slavery deliver- 
ances, or during their existence as a separate organ- 
ization? 

The Northern General Assembly of 1888, adopted 
the following resolution, nomine eontradicente: 

Resolved, On the near approach of Decoration 
Day, the day set apart in memory of those, who, 
during the civil war, gave their lives that the union 
and the country should not die, this General Assem- 
bly desires to put on record its grateful recognition 
of the inestimable services, the devotion unto death, 
of these heroic patriot soldiers, and our undying 
attachment to the great principle for which they 
fought and died, and with the great multitude of our 
fellow-citizens to extend our prayerful sympathy to 
those throughout our whole country to whom this day 
brings still the memory of immeasurable bereavement. 

It is probable that a few leaders in the southern 
church, if reunion were consummated, would con- 
tinue a ceaseless agitation which would embroil the 
church in a perpetual turmoil. Many in the South 



TUPELO. 323 

blindly and implicitly follow the lead of those whom 
they esteem as "big men." A few southern politi- 
cians (not statesmen), ambitious as Lucifer, inflamed 
that very excitable thing, the southern heart, and 
precipitated the rebellion in opposition to the wishes 
and warnings of the conservative and loyal majority. 
A few ecclesiastical leaders are endeavoring to pre- 
vent reunion by threats of secession from the church 
if it be apj roved by the majority, and by a resort to 
tactics, subterfuges, and stratagems, which they will 
persistently practice in order to compel the majority 
to yield to them and make an unconditional surrender 
for the sake of peace. 

For these reasons it is probably best to postpone 
reunion, at least for another decade, when it is to be 
hoped that sentiments and theories and practices so 
repugnant and abhorrent to Christians and friends oi 
stable government and human rights, shall have dis- 
appeared from the southern church. Then they will 
be welcomed with open arms and joyful acclamations 
by the whole membership of the northern church. 
For this blessed consummation let all true Christians 
ever devoutly pray. Then will there be indeed a 
new and regenerated South, relegating into the gulf 
of oblivion the grim, absurd, and barbarous traditions 
of the past era, and rising, phoenix-like from her 
ashes, she will join with the North and the Fast and 
the West with glad acclaim in the angel's song, 
"Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, g<>ml 
vviJ to men." This will be indeed the golden age, 



324 TUPELO. 

the harbinger of millennial glory, which we trust is 
soon to be ushered in in all its fullness and blessed- 
ness, to gladden the hearts of all men everywhere, 
and to unite in bonds of sympathy and love all races 
and kindreds and tongues and nations to earth's re- 
motest bounds, and to make them one in Christ Jesus. 
Livonia, Washington county, Indiana. 

Since the war I have been very kindly and hos- 
pitably received by the southern people while a so- 
journer among them. They say, "We will gladly 
welcome northern people as citizens, if they will only 
let politics alone." I enquired if that meant that 
northern people who emigrate South must refrain 
from voting and from holding office. They replied, 
"That is just what we mean." Said I, "You wish 
us to purchase citizenship at too great a cost. The 
exercise of the elective franchise, that badge of free- 
men, will not be basely bartered for a 'mess of pot- 
tage' by the descendants of revolutionary sires who 
shed their blood on many an ensanguined battle field 
to secure this priceless boon for themselves and their 
posterity, to be enjoyed and exercised till the last 
moment of recorded time." 

The reason assigned for this course is, that if a " free 
ballot and fair count" were tolerated it would change 
the political complexion of many of the southern 
states, notably the states of South Carolina, Mississ- 
ippi, Lousiana, and Florida. The eolored people and 
"scalawags 1 ' in these states outnumber the party in 



TUPELO. Wl'j 

power, and the majority of the northern immigrants 
would doubtless join with them and bring about a 
political revolution, which, they say, "we must pre- 
vent by all the means that God and nature have placed 
in our power." This is the reason that they contra- 
vene the idea of allowing residents among- them of 
northern birth to vote or hold office. 

I have found a spirit of intolerance prevailing 
among thp colored people. If one of their number 
should vote with the dominant party he immediately 
lost caste and was virtually ostracised. I enquired 
what punishment would be inflicted upon a renegade 
colored man. The reply I received, which was vo- 
ciferously applauded, was, "The women would drive 
him from, the settlement with switches." A mission- . 
arv sent them, who was not of their party, would 
not be received as a religious teacher or minister of 
the gospel. They are very bitter against the white 
people who defraud them and keep them in peon 
bondage through the infamous labor contract system, 
and who defraud them of the exercise of the elective 
franchise, guaranteed them by constitutional amend- 
ment. They are earnestly hoping and praying for de- 
liverance to come. Every American should resent 
every insult offered to humanity, tor if the rights of the 
lowliest are trampled upon the rights of the highest 
are not safe. 

The day of vengeance and wrath will come per- 
haps much sooner than the southern people are aware. 
Many feel as I did, when residing in the Carolinas 



326 TUPELO. 

ill 1881 and 1882, that I would be willing, if there 
were any hope of ultimate success, to shoulder my 
musket, and throwing doAvn the gage of battle, con- 
tend to the bitter end for my God-given and constitu- 
tional rights of which I was fraudulently deprived 
for I had no more privilege than the darkest African 
to vote and have my vote counted if I chose to cast 
my ballot against the dominant party. 

Coming events cast their shadows before. This 
great crime against the genius of free institutions and 
the republican form of government will not long be 
tolerated. This stain upon our nation's fair escutch- 
eon will, Ave opine, be speedily washed away, and, 
if necessary, in the blood of the offenders. 

Before the war I felt certain that slavery was 
doomed and near its extinction. The insolence of 
the slave-holders, the increasing rigors and barbarities 
of slavery, led to the conviction that if God were 
just and merciful he would not longer tolerate in his 
providence an institution whose victims, numbered 
by millions, were subjected to every refinement of 
cruelty that base men could devise. 

There was an additional evidence that redemption 
was drawing nigh in the fact that the prayers of the 
oppressed slave for deliverance were daily ascending 
to the throne of a prayer hearing and prayer answer- 
ing God, and in the knowledge that millions of 
humane Christian people, North and South, were fer- 
vently imploring God to hasten the time when Ethi- 
opia should stretch out her hands to God, when every 



TUPELO. :',•_!, 

yoke should be broken and the oppressed become free, 
God thus pouring out the spirit of grace and of sup- 
plication upon his people, putting it into their hearts 
to pray mightily for the deliverance of the bondmen, 
the benign spirit of the age, the quickened conscience 
of the wise and good, the increase of an enlightened 
public opinion, the wide dissemination of Gospel 
truth, the signs of the times, and the fulfillment of 
prophecy, indicating the probably speedy approach of 
the millennium — all, all conspiring to the overthrow 
of this horrid, murderous Moloch ; and these ele- 
ments of its destruction were observable by even the 
least acute observer. 

It is now evident that the moral sense of the na- 
tion is aroused to a true view of the enormity of the 
crime against civil liberty, practiced with bold effront- 
ery, and thus far with impunity, by the southern 
people, in preventing, by fraud, intimidation, and 
violence, a free expression of political opinion at the 
polls by those who have a constitutional right to exer- 
cise the elective franchise. The end is near of this 
great wickedness. Thousands have been murdered 
at the polls when endeavoring to exercise the rights 
of American freemen. Had an American citizen who 
had committed no crime lost his life at the hands of 
Austrians or Mexicans our government would have 
speedily instituted a court of inquiry, or have sent a 
minister plenipotentiary with lull powers to in\ 
gate the outrage, and see to it that the perpetrators 
of the crime were brought to speedy and condign pun- 



328 TUPELO. • 

ishment; or, failing in this, through the escape of 
the criminals, the nation whose citizens were the 
guilty parties Mould be held responsible for the act 
which could only be atoned for by an humble apology 
and ample reparation. 

In the South many, very many, of our best and 
truest men, true to moral principle and loyal to the 
government, have fallen by the hands of ex-Con- 
federates for this reason and no other, that they were 
loyal and patriotic — and the government has been 
silent. Occasionally congress has gone so far as to 
appoint a committee of investigation. The murder- 
ers were proven guilty, but they were not brought to 
justice, and when the committee returned to make 
their report to congress these southern murderers slew 
all who had as witnesses testified against them. What 
impotence on the part of congress. Can they expect 
any more witnesses to criminate themselves (in South- 
ern estimation), by testifying against the murderers of 
loyal men? Many thousands of loyal men have 
been murdered since the war. Congress has dis- 
covered the murderers in numerous instances, but not 
one of them has been punished, and with impunity 
they have been suffered to continue their murders by 
putting to death all who testified against them before 
the congressional committee. What the object of the 
congressional investigation was is a mystery difficult 
of solution. Sometime, "in the course of human 
events," congressional investigation may be under- 
taken with some object in view worthy of the great 



tupei.o. 329 

nation whose interests they have been chosen to sub- 
serve, and of the citizens of the republic, whose lives 
and property they should protect by the exercise of 
all the powers vested in them, whether the endangered 
p>ersons are citizens of South Carolina or Massachu- 
setts, and without regard to their " race, color, or pre- 
vious condition of servitude." 

Land of great fertility can be purchased in the 
Gulf states at from two to ten dollars per acre. In 
the near future the attention of northern people will 
be attracted to this cheap and productive land, when 
an exodus from the North to this genial clime, oi 
gigantic proportions, will be inaugurated. Within 
five years after its commencement ten million robust, 
energetic Yankees, with all the vim and perseverance 
of that people will be precipitated upon the South. 
They will come with their churches, their free schools, 
and their higher educational institutions. They will 
come with their innate ideas in regard to civil liberty 
and human rights. And as iconoclasts they will, 
with irresistible might, destroy the idols of the south- 
ern oligarchs, and establish and cherish civil and re- 
ligious liberty in its true and highest sense. They 
A r ill coalesce with the loyal element of the South, 
thus making it at once dominant politically and 
ecclesiastically. Then, portraits of the arch traitors, 
Jeff Davis, and Gen. R. E. Lee, and Stonewall 
Jackson, et alii., will no longer be found adorning 
the walls of southern parlors. The portraits of pa- 
triots will supersede them. Histories of the war, laud- 



330 TUPELO. 

ing treason and arguing in favor of the treasonable 
principles underlying the " lost cause," will be driven 
from circulation, and thus the minds of the rising 
generation of southern youth will no longer be poi- 
soned by them. Monuments erected to commemorate 
the perfidious acts of hostility against the govern- 
ment by perjured rebels will be suffered to fall into 
decay, or will be removed and destroyed. The 
southern papers would then be compelled to be loyal, 
and in their utterances give no uncertain sound. 
The notorious Col. Smith, under the nom de plume 
of " Bill Arp," thus writes in the weekly Atlanta 
Constitution of Jan. 3, 1888 : "The northern man 
ought to say : ' Oh ! well, those people down south 
thought they were right, and they are just as pa- 
triotic as we are. * * * Let us begin to pension 
their soldiers, just as we pension ours. In fact we 
ought to pay them something for their slaves. Eng- 
land paid for hers when they were set free, and 
Gladstone, that great and good man, got three hun- 
dred thousand dollars for his, and our southern 
brethren are just as good as Gladstone. * * The 
South is looming up, and she will come to the front 
in a few years. She is solid and always will be," 
etc. Pension the soldiers of the defunct Southern 
Confederacy, that military usurpation which mar- 
shaled its millions to subvert the government pur- 
chased for us at infinite cost by our revolutionary 
sires! Forbid it, Almighty God! Forbid it, 
heaven ! The servants of the devil might as well 



TUPELO. 331 

make this demand of the judge in the great judg- 
ment day : " Reward us as well as those upon the 
right hand. "We served your enemy, the devil. 
We promoted his interest with fidelity, but heaven 
has triumphed over us and we found the devil, our 
lord, a bad paymaster. In his service we have lost 
all. We staked all we possessed upon the issue of 
the contest, the supernal powers have triumphed over 
the infernal, and all is lost. Do thou pay us, even 
as thou payest thy loyal servants, many of whom at 
the bidding of our master, the devil, we put to 
death, and we would have destroyed them all if it had 
been possible for us to compass their destruction. It 
is true we have never repented nor confessed that 
we erred in choosing the service of the devil, and in 
aiding and abetting his warfare against heaven. 
But we are in a sad plight. Do thou compensate us 
for the losse? we have incurred in our attempt to 
subvert thy throne." 

Yes, Bill Arp, you ought to be paid. You fought 
against the government in the interest of human 
bondage. You strove to sever the Union cemented 
with the blood of our patriot fathers. In mistaken 
clemency the government spared the lives of the 
whole rebellious horde, who strove to raze it t<> its 
foundations. Yes, you ought to have been paid long 
ago, and if you had received your just deserts you 
would not now be on terra firma to make a demand 
so insolent, and with such brazen-faced effrontery. 

"If all are pardoned, and pardoned as a mere act 



332 TUPELO. 

of clemency, the very substance of government is 
made nugatory," says Isaac Taylor, and, I fear, with 
truth. Treason should have been made odious by the 
death penalty being visited upon many of the arch 
conspirators. Now they demand the reward of Loy- 
alty, and compensation for their slaves. Would 
Gladstone have received compensation for his eman- 
cipated slaves if he had rebelled against his govern- 
ment and inaugurated a civil war to perpetuate 
slavery ? No. When overcome he would have been 
blown to pieces from the mouth of a cannon, as were 
the leaders of the Sepoy rebellion, and his property 
would have been confiscated, including his slaves. 

If the penalty due to treason had been inflicted 
upon many of the chief conspirators in the South, 
the survivors would have a more salutary respect for 
the government whose mistaken clemency spares their 
forfeited lives. Now they live to make -the most ins< »- 
lent demands. Now they have reached the sublime 
height of arrogance and presumption, by asking for 
the reward of loyalty and the same compensation as 
that nobly earned by those who imperiled their lives 
in defense of the government assailed by those min- 
ions of treason. What will be their next demand? 

Let there be more legislation by congress in the 
interests of the loyal majority in the South. At 
least let congress emancipate this loyal majority from 
bheir disabilities imposed by the disloyal and semi- 
loyal elements who bear rule and repress all opposi- 
tion to their peculiar modes and acts against the true 



TUPELO. 333 

principles of civil liberty and human rights. Oh! 
that God would in His providence hasten the time 
when some irenicon may be found, and it can be 
truly said of our country, 

"Land of happy union, •where the East 
Smiles on the West in love, and northern snows 
Melt in the ardor of the genial South." 

Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne Co., Pa., July Jf,, 1888. 

THE SOUTHERN LOYALISTS. 

Col. Benj. H. Grierson, of the 6th Illinois cavalry 
with his regiment, together with the 7th 111. and the 
2d Iowa, by order of Gen. U. S. Grant, made his 
famous raid in April, 1863, from LaGrange, Ten- 
nessee, through Mississippi to Baton Rouge, La. 
As a result of his operation Gen. Grierson writes: 
" The strength of the rebels has been overestimated. 
They have neither the arms nor the resources we 
have given them credit for. Passing through their 
country I found thousands of good Union men who 
were ready and anxious to rally round the old ring- 
whenever it was possible. I could have brought 
away a thousand with me who were anxious to come 
— men whom I found fugitives from their homes, 
hid in swamps and forests where they were hunted 
like wild beasts by conscripting officers with blood- 
hounds." 

Pollard says : In the last periods of the war 
the demoralization of the Confederacy was painfully 
apparent. Rich and powerful citizens managed to 



334 TUPELO. 

escape the conscription — it was said in Richmond 
that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye 
of a needle than for a rich man to enter Camp Lee. 
But the rigor of the law did not spare the poor and 
helpless, and the complaint was made in the Confed- 
erate Congress that even destitute cripples had been 
taken from their homes and confined in the conscrip- 
tion camps without reference to physical disability 
so conspicuous and pitiful. It was not unusual to 
see at the railroad stations long lines of squalid men 
with scraps of blankets in their hands, or small pine 
boxes of provisions, or whatever else they might 
snatch in their hurried departure from their homes, 
whence they had been taken almost without a mo- 
ment's notice and ticketed for the various camps of 
instruction in the Confederacy. In armies thus re- 
cruited desertions were the events of every day. 
The conscript, constantly on short rations, sometimes 
without a scrap of meat, and frequently in a con- 
dition bordering on absolute starvation, hearing con- 
stantly of destitution at home, and being distressed 
with the sufferings of his family, was constantly de- 
vising plans of escape that he might go to their relief. 
It was estimated in 18G4 that the conscription would 
put more than 400,000 men in the field. Scarcely 
one-fourth of this number were found under arms 
when the close of the war tore the veil from the thin 
lines of Confederate defence. Thousands of Confed- 
erate soldiers were sent by the Confederate govern- 
ment to engage with packs of blood-hounds in the 



TUPELO. 335 

hunt for deserters and conscripts, who, when caught, 
would desert again at the first favorable opportunity. 
Thus the army was. depleted. The great majority 
of these conscripts and deserters were Unionists. 
They hated the Confederate 'cause with a perfect 
hatred. Pollard writes in his history: Much has 
been said of the sufferings, persecutions, humiliations, 
and spoliations inflicted upon Union men in the 
South, but when the period arrives for a dispassion- 
ate examination of the real facts, the reader of his- 
tory will be amazed at the moderation of the southern 
people, more especially of the Confederate govern- 
ment toward a class of persons capable of so much 
mischief in a society threatened by imminent and 
fearful peril from within and without. He states as 
an offset that a system of terror was established in 
the North, where public sentiment was unanimous as 
against the South; opinions only differing as to the 
best means of reducing the distant rebellion. This 
system of terror he asserts could only be warranted 
in the South. The following letter is a specimen of 
the truculent hatred of the southern secessionist to- 
ward the Unionist : 

Abingdon, Va., Oct. 2, 1861. 
My Dear Wife: 

I have left you and our children in the land of 
the despot, but God grant that I may soon ba able 
to make the Union men of Kentucky feel the edge 
of my knife. From this day I hold every Union 
traitor as my enemy, and from him I scorn to re- 



336 tupeeo. 

eeive quarter, and to him I will never grant any, 

for they are cowards and villains enough. Brother 

Henry and I arrived here without hindrance. I 

have had chills all the way, but I hope to live to 

kill forty Yankees for every chill I have ever had. 

I learn that Hardee is still in the Arkansas lines, 

inactive, and if this proves true I will tender my 

resignation and go immediately to Kentucky. I 

hope that I will do my duty as a rebel and a free 

man. Since I hate the Union men of Kentucky, I 

hope to begin the work of murder in earnest, and if 

I ever spare one of them, may hell be my portion. 

I want to see Union blood deep enough to swim my 

horse in. 

Your husband, 

James Blackburn. 
(Brother of Gov. Blackburn.) 
The white Unionists suffered the loss of all things, 
and for them there is no redress. The Government 
will nut pay for their property destroyed or confis- 
cated by the rebels, nor will they grant them a pen- 
sion for loss of health caused by their incai-ceration 
in rebel prisons, and although many have lost their 
lives at rebel hands, their families receive no pen- 
sion. They do not complain of this neglect, but the 
survivors rejoice in the subversion of rebellion, and 
feel themselves more than compensated for all their 
losses by its overthrow. In one settlement in North 
Carolina there lived a large number of unconditional 
Union men. Twelve of these men were forced into 



TUPELO. 337 

the army by the conscripting officers. Muskets were 
given them, but every man of them refused to touch 
the weapons. Every conceivable insult and outrage 
were heaped upon them. They were starved, tied up 
and whipped; still they remained firfn to their con- 
scientious convictions. Finally the muskets were 
strapped to their bodies. One of these men was sin- 
gled out as especially obnoxious, and whipped un- 
mercifully. The officer in charge was lawless and 
brutal, and on one occasion ordered him to be shot 
as an example to others. He called out a file of men 
to shoot him. While his executioners were drawn 
up before him, standing within twelve feet of their 
victim, the latter, raising his eyes to heaven and ele- 
vating his hands, cried out in a loud voice : " Father, 
forgive them, they know not what they do." In- 
stantly came the order to fire. But instead of obey- 
ing it the men dropped their muskets and refused, 
declaring that they could not kill such a man. This 
refusal so enraged the officer that he knocked the 
victim down and then strove repeatedly to trample 
him to death under his horse's feet. But the animal 
persistently refused to step over his prostrate body. 
In the end they were marched with the rebel army 
to Gettysburg. In that battle they remained entirely 
passive, fired no shot, and trusted in God for pres- 
ervation. Very early in the action the officer re- 
ferred to was killed. These men, all unhurt, were 
taken prisoners and sent to Fort Delaware. Here, 
by accident, it became known in Philadelphia that 



338 TUPELO. 

a number of Friends were among the captured, and 
two members of .the society went down to inquire 
into the circumstances, but they were refused permis- 
sion to see them. They went immediately to Wash- 
ington, and there obtained an order for their dis- 
charge, conditioned upon their taking an affirmation 
of their allegiance. This opened their prison door. 
The affirmation made, these martyrs for conscience's 
sake were released, and coming to Philadelphia were 
cared for by the Friends of that hospitable city. 

In a memorial addressed to President Lincoln by 
Union officers who were prisoners, occurs this state- 
ment in regard to the prisoners of war at Anderson- 
ville : " They are fast losing hope and becoming ut- 
terly reckless of life. Numbers, crazed by their 
sufferings, wander about in a state of idiocy. Others 
deliberately cross the dead line and are remorselessly 
shot down." 

The following is an extract from an official report 
by Col. D. T. Chandler, formerly an inspector gen- 
eral in the Confederate service, addressed to Col. 
Chilton, at Richmond, Va., under date of Aug. 5, 
1864: 

" My duty requires me respectfully to recommend 
a change in the officer in command of the post, Brig- 
adier General J. H. Winder, and the substitution in 
his place of some one who unites both energy and 
good judgment with some feelings of humanity and 
consideration for the welfare and comfort (so far as 
is consistent with their safe keeping) of the vast num- 



TUPELO. 339 

ber of unfortunates placed under his control; some 
one who at least does not advocate, deliberately and 
in cold blood, the propriety of Leaving them in their 
present condition until their number has been suffi- 
ciently reduced by death to make the present ar- 
rangements suffice for their accommodation, who will 
not consider it a matter of self-laudation, boasting 
that he has never been inside the stockade — a place 
of horrors which it is difficult to describe, and which 
is a disgrace to civilization — the condition of which 
he might, by the exercise of a little energy and judg- 
ment, even with the limited means at his command, 
have considerably improved." 

The Confederate authorities at Richmond were thus 
officially notified of these atrocities, and yet took no 
action. The conclusion seems inevitable that they 
fully approved the measures adopted by the com- 
manding officers at Andersonville, and also at Belle 
Isle, which was so immediately under their eyes 
that ignorance could not possibly be pleaded. 

In the southern prison pens where our soldiers and 
Unionists were incarcerated, diarrhoea ground out 
their bowels, scurvy cut off their extremities, rheuma- 
tism racked their bones, the sun parched their skin, 
the nights chilled their blood, the storms beat upon 
them until their garments looked like the clothing of 
a scarecrow, and the silent frost stole upon many a 
one and held his eyes closed so tightly that the morn- 
ing sun could not warm to life. 

John Beman, a watchman employed on a southern 



340 TUPELO. 

steamboat, who had a family in Boston, Mass., was 
arrested by a vigilance committee for the expression 
of opinions loyal to the United States government. 
The committee proposed to forgive him if he took an 
oath to support the southern states. He indignantly 
repelled the proposition and said that he would die 
first, when they immediately hanged him. 

The congressional committee on the conduct of the 
war report that Major Bradford, wdio was captain at 
Fort Pillow, while being conveyed from Brownsville 
to Jackson was taken by five rebels, one an officer, 
led about fifty yards from the line of march and de- 
liberately murdered, in view of all those assembled. 
He fell instantly, pierced by three musket balls, even 
while asking that his life might be spared, as he had 
fought them manfully and deserved a better fate. 
The motive assigned for the murder of Major Brad- 
ford was the fact that, although a native of the South, 
he remained loyal to his government. Major Brad-r 
ford had witnessed the murder in cold blood of three 
hundred of his fellow-prisoners after their surrender 
at Fort Pillow. 

Gen. Wm. T. Sherman to the mayor of Atlanta: 
" I myself have seen, in Missouri, Kentucky, Tenn- 
essee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of 
women and children fleeing from your armies and 
desperadoes, hungry and with, bleeding feet. Now 
that war comes home to you you feel very differently. 
You deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when 
vou sent car loads of soldiers and ammunition and 



TUPELO. :'>41 

moulded shell and shot to carry war into Kentucky 
and Tennessee and Mississippi, to desolate the homes 
of hundreds of thousands of good loyal people, who 
only ask to live in peace at their old homes and under 
the government of their inheritance." 

Captain Phillips, who captured Florence, Alabama, 
says, in his official report: "We have met the 
most gratifying proofs of loyalty everywhere, across 
the Tennessee, and in North Mississippi and North 
Alabama, where we visited. Most affecting instances 
greeted us hourly. Men, women, and children 
gathered in crowds, shouted their welcome, and 
hailed their national flag with an enthusiasm there 
was no mistaking. It was genuine and heart-felt. 
They have experienced, as they related, every possi- 
ble form of persecution. Tears flowed down the 
cheeks of the men as w r ell as of the women." 

A British officer, Lieutenant Col. Fremantle, of 
the Cold Stream Guards, who made a tour of inspec- 
tion during the war, says : " I met Capt. , of 

Duff's Cavalry. The captain was rather a boaster. 
Some Unionists had crossed the river to Matamoras, 
Mexico. This captain had made a raid across the 
river and had carried off some of these ' renegadoes,' 
one of whom, Montgomery, he had left on the road 
to Brownsville. General Bee, a brother of General 
Bee who was killed at Manassas, told me that the 
Montgomery affair was against his sanction and he 
was sorry for it. He said that Davis, another rene- 
gado, would also have been put to death had it not 



342 tupei,o. 

been for the intercession of his wife. Gen. Bee had 
restored Davis to the Mexicans. Half an hour after 
we left Gen. Bee we came to the spot where Mont- 
gomery had been ' left,' and sure enough, about two 
hundred yards to the left of the road, we found him. 
He had been slightly buried, but his head and arms 
were above the ground, his arms tied together, the 
rope still round his neck, but part of it still dangling 
from a small mosquite tree. Dogs or wolves had 
probably scraped the earth from the body, and there 
was no flesh on the bones. I obtained this, my first 
observation of lynch law, within three hours after 
landing in America. About three miles beyond this 
we came to Col. Duff's encampment. He is a fine 
looking, handsome Scotchman. He received me with 
much hospitality. Col. Duff confessed that the 
Montgomery affair was all wrong, but he added that 

his boys meant well. I was presented to , rather 

a sinister-looking party, with long yellow hair doAvn 
to his shoulders. This is the man who hanged 
Montgomery. We were treated by all the officers 
with much consideration. Col. Luckett gave me a 
letter to Gen. Van Dorn, whom they consider the 
beau, ideal of a cavalry soldier. They said from 
time immemorial the Yankees had been despised by 
the Southerners as a race inferior to themselves in 
courage and in honorable sentiments. Duff's regi- 
ment is called the Partisan Rangers. They are 
armed with carbines and six-shooters. I saw them 
come in from a scouting expedition against the In- 



Tupelo. 343 

dians, 300 miles off. They told me that they wore in 
the habit of scalping an Indian when they caught 
him, and that they never spared one, because the only 
good Indian was a dead Indian. This regiment had 
been employed in quelling a counter-revolution of 
Unionists in Texas. Nothing could exceed the ran- 
cor with which they spoke of these renegadoes, as 
they called them. When I suggested to some of the 
Texans that they might as well bury the body of 
Montgomery a little better, they did not at all agree 
with me, but said it ought not to have been buried at 
all, but* left hanging as a warning to others. Col. 
Duff comes from Perth. He was one of the leading 
characters in the secession of Texas. He said his 
brother was a banker at Dunkeld. At the consulate, 

, a Texas Unionist, confided his sentiments to 

me. On the next evening he came to me and said 
he hoped I would not compromise his safety by re- 
vealing to any one the sentiments he expressed the 
day before. 

"I attended the evening parade and saw Gen. Bee, 

Cols. Luckett, Buchel, Duff, and . The 

latter, who hanged Montgomery, improves upon 
acquaintance. 

"Gen. Bee took me for a drive in his ambulance, 
and introduced me to Major Leon Smith, who captured 
the Harriet Lane. After the Harriet Lane had been 
captured she was fired into by the other ships, and 
Major Smith told me that his blood being up li- 
the ex-master of the Harriet Lane to Commodore 



344 TUPELO. 

Renshaw, with a message that, unless the firing was 
stopped, he would massacre the captured crew. After 
hearing this, Commodore Renshaw blew up his ship 
with himself in her. I met Gen. Bankhead Magru- 
der. He speaks of the Puritans with intense disgust, 
and of the first importation of them as ' that pestiferous 
crew of the May Flower.' * * * Mr. Sargent and 
the judge finished the gin, and the former being rather 
drunk entertained us with a detailed description of his 
treatment of a refractory negro girl, which, by his 
own account must have been very severe. The dis- 
tance from Brownsville to San Antonio is 330 miles. 
San Antonio is prettily situated on both banks 
of the river of the same name. It contains about 
10,000 inhabitants, and is the largest place in Texas, 
except Galveston. The houses are well built of 
stone, generally one or two stories high. All have 
verandas in front. In the neighborhood of San 
Antonio one-third of the population is German, and 
many of them by no means loyal to the Confederate 
cause. They resisted by force of arms, but were set- 
tled by Duff's regiment. I heard a dispute between 

and a German militia general. The latter 

spoke strongly in disapproval of ' secret or night lynch- 
ing.' In spite of their hanging, shooting, etc., there 
is much to like in the southern chivalry. 

"An able-bodied male negro in Texas brings $2,- 
500, while a well skilled seamstress is worth $3,500. 
In the cars I was introduced to General Samuel 
Houston, the founder of Texan independence. He 



TUPELO. 345 

told rue he was born in Virginia seventy years ago 
that lie was United States senator at thirty, and gov- 
ernor of Tennessee at thirty-six. He emigrated into 
Texas in 1832 ; headed the revolt of Texas, and de- 
feated the Mexicans at San Jacinto in 1836. He 
then became President of the Republic of Texas, 
which he annexed to the United States in 1845. As 
governor of the state in 1860, he had opposed the 
secession movement and was deposed. He is evi- 
dently a remarkable and clever man, and much dis- 
appointed at having to subside from his former 
grandeur. I was introduced to Col. Chubb, who 
served as coxswain to the United States ship Java. 
He was guilty of hiring a colored crew at Boston and 
then coolly selling them at Galveston. I was intro- 
duced to Major , a brother-in-law to the man 

who had hanged the Unionist, Montgomery. He 
spoke with some pride of the exploit of his relative. 
An indignant drayman came to complain of a mili- 
tary outrage. A semi -drunken Texan, of Pyron's 
regiment, had ordered him to halt; the latter declin- 
ing to do so, the Texan fired five shots at him from 
his six shooter. Capt. Foster said that the regiment 
would probably hang the soldier for being such a 
disgreiccfully bad shot. 

"We breakfasted a Huntsville. The Federal 
officers captured in the Harriet Lane are confined 
here in the penitentiary, and are not treated as pris- 
oners of war. This seems to be the system now with 
regard to officers, since the enlistment of negroes by 



346 TUPELO. 

northerners. My fellow-travelers of all classes are 
much given to talk about their 'peculiar institution.' 
They do not attempt to deny that there are many 
instances of cruelty, and all seem to be perfectly 
aware that slavery, which they did not invent but 
which they inherited from us (English), is and always 
will be the great bar to the sympathy of the civilized 
world. I have heard these words used over and over 
again. 

" I started again by stage for Monroe, La. My 
companions were a Mississippi planter, a mad dentist 
from New Orleans (called by courtesy doctor), an 
old man from Matagorda, buying slaves cheap in 
Louisiana, a wounded officer, and a soldier. The 
soldier was a very intelligent Missourian, who told 
me (as others have) that at the commencement of the 
troubles both he and his family were strong Union- 
ists, but the Lincolnites by using coercion had forced 
them to take one side or the other and now there 
were no more bitter secessionists. This soldier (Mr. 
Douglas) was on his way to join Bragg's army. A 
Confederate soldier when wounded is not given His 
discharge, but is employed at such work as he 
is competent to perform. Mr. Douglas is quite 
lame, but will be employed at mounted duties or at 
writing. 

" At a charming little town called Minden, I met 
an Englishman, who deplored to me that he had 
been such a fool as to naturalize himself, as he was 
in hourly dread of conscription. Nearly every man 



TUPELO. 347 

in this part of the country has a military title. Re- 
marking upon the prevalence of military titles, Gen. 
Johnson said, ' You must be astonished to find how 
fond we are of titles, though we are all republicans, 
and as we can't get any other sort, we all take military 
ones.' I find the soldiers sober from necessity, as 
there is literally no liquor to be got. There is great 
indisposition upon the part of the Confederates to 
take prisoners, particularly among these wild Mis- 
sissippians. One of Henderson's scouts apologized 
for bringing in a Yankee prisoner by saying that he 
surrendered so quick he couldn't kill him. Gen. 
Johnston told me this evening that he had been 
wounded ten times. He was the senior officer of the 
old army who joined the Confederates, and he com- 
manded the Virginia army till he was severely 
wounded at Seven Pines, called Fair Oaks, by the 
Federals. News arrived this evening of the hanging 
of a negro regiment with forty Yankee officers. I 
attended a review by Gen. Hardee. After the re- 
view the troops were harangued by Bishop Elliott, 
in an excellent address, partly religious, partly patri- 
otic. Col. Richmond gave me the particulars of 
Gen. VanDorn's death. He had ravished the wife 
of Dr. Peters, and was shot by the aggrieved hus- 
band." 

This, from a southern newspaper indicates the 
temper of the times in 1861 : " We unhesitatingly 
say that the cause of justice and the cause of human- 
ity itself demands that the black flag shall be unfurled 



348 TUPELO. 

on every field — that extermination and death shall 
be proclaimed against the hellish miscreants who per- 
sist in polluting our soil with their crimes. We will 
stop the effusion of blood, we will arrest the horrors 
of war, by terrific slaughter of the foe, by examples 
of overwhelming and unsparing vengeance. When 
Oliver Cromwell massacred the garrison of Drogheda, 
suffering not a man to escape, he justified it on the 
ground that his object was to bring the war to a close, 
to stop the effusion of blood, and that it was, there- 
fore, a merciful act on his part. The South cannot 
afford longer to trifle. She must strike the most 
fearful blows — the war cry of extermination must 
be raised." 

The Nashville (Tenn.) Courier published this 
news item : 

" We learn that a squad of twelve men were sent 
to Franklin yesterday to arrest some Lincdlnites. 
They had collected to the number of fifteen at the 
house of one of their number, one Bell, and defying 
the party, fired at them, killing one man by the 
name of Lee, and wounding one or two more. Our 
men then charged the house and set fire to it, and all 
the men in it, it is believed, but two, who escaped, 
perished in the conflagration." 

The act of the Confederate congress for the sup- 
pression of the slave trade was couched in the usual 
terms, but contained a provision for dealing with the 
negroes found on board the captured vessels, which 
is somewhat amusing. " If the vessel is cleared 



TUPELO. 349 

from any port in the United States, the president 
shall communicate with any governor of that state, 
and shall offer to deliver such negroes to the said 
state on receiving a guarantee that the said negroes 
shall enjoy the rights and privileges of freemen in 
such state, or in any other state of the United States, 
or that they shall be transported to Africa and there 
be set at liberty, without expense to the government." 
The notion of the Confederate states bargaining with 
Massachusetts or Ohio that a negro shall have all 
the rights and privileges of a freeman might imply a 
doubt as to the sincerity of their professions in be- 
half of the negro. In default of the foreign state 
accepting this offer, the president was empowered to 
receive any propositions made for the transportation 
of the negroes to Africa by private persons ; should 
no such philanthropist offer himself, the president 
shall cause the said negroes to be sold at public auc- 
tion to the highest bidder. This is a sad declension 
from the lofty morality of the earlier part of the 
clause. This act was passed with entire unanimity 
by the Confederate congress. 

Near the close of the war the Confederate congress 
called upon the negro for help, offering him his free- 
dom and a quarter section of government land for 
his services as a soldier. But the offer came too late, 
the rebellion soon after collapsed. The South, before 
this, professed to regard freedom as a curse to the 
negro and slavery as a blessing. O ! consistency, 
thou art a jewel. 



350 TUPELO. 

The southern leaders had been preparing for years 
to destroy the Union. Mr. Kcitt, of South Caro- 
lina, in the convention which met to carry the state 
out of the Union, said : " I have been engaged in 
this movement ever since I entered political life." 
Mr. Inglis said, " Most of us have had this subject 
under consideration for twenty years." Mr. Rhctt 
said, " It is nothing produced by Mr. Lincoln's elec- 
tion or the non-execution of the fugitive slave law. 
It is a matter that has been gathering head for thirty 
years." 

Preamble to the Florida ordinance of secession : 

Whereas, All hope of preserving the Union 
upon terms consistent with the safety and honor of 
the slave-holding states has been finally dissipated by 
the recent indications of the strength of the anti- 
slavery sentiment of the free states. This compels 
Florida to secede from the Union, and to become a 
sovereign and independent nation, and that all ordi- 
nances heretofore adopted, in so far as they create or 
recognize the confederacy of states called the United 
States of America are rescinded. 

Stephen A. Douglas said : " The question is, are 
we to maintain the country of our fathers or allow it 
to be stricken down by those who, when they can no 
longer govern, threaten to destroy? "What cause, 
what excuse do disunionists give us for breaking up 
the best government on which the sun of heaven ever 
shed its rays ? They are dissatisfied with the result 
of the presidential election. Did they never get 



TUPELO; 30 i 

beaten before? Are we to resort to the sword 
when we get defeated at the ballot-box? I under- 
stand it that the voiee of the people expressed in the 
mode appointed by the constitution must command 
the obedience of every citizen. They assume, on the 
election of a particular candidate, that their rights 
are not safe in the Union. What evidence do they 
present of this? I defy any man to show any act 
upon which it is based. What act was omitted to be 
done? I appeal to these assembled thousands, that 
so far as the constitutional rights of slave-holders 
are concerned, nothing has been done and nothing 
omitted, of which they can complain. There has 
never been a time from the day that Washington was 
inaugurated first president of the United States, when 
the rights of the southern states stood firmer under 
the laws of the land than they do now ; there never 
was a time when they had not as good cause for dis- 
union as they have to-day. What good cause have 
they now that has not existed under every adminis- 
tration. If they say the territorial question — now, 
for the first time, there is no act of congress prohibit- 
ing slavery anywhere. If it. be the enforcement of 
the laws, the only complaints that I have heard have 
been of the too vigorous and too faithful fulfillment 
of the fugitive slave law. Then what reason have 
they? The slavery question is a mere excuse. The 
election of Lincoln is a mere pretext. The present 
secession movement is the result of an enormous con- 
spiracy formed more than a year since, formed by 



352 TUPELO. 

the leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than 
twelve months ago. But this is no time for the 
detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known. 
Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish 
it. There are only two sides to this question. Every 
man must be for the Union or against it. There can 
be no more neutrals in this war, only patriots or 
traitors. 

"Thank God, Illinois is not divided upon the 
question. I know they expected to present a united 
South against a divided North. They hoped that in 
the northern states party questions would bring civil 
war between democrats and republicans, when the 
South would step in with her cohorts, aid one party 
to conquer the other, and then make easy prey of the 
victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war in 
the North. There is but one way to defeat this. In 
Illinois it is being so defeated by closing up the 
ranks. I express it as my conviction before God 
that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally 
around the flag of his country." 

Gen. Grant says : " In the South no opposition 
was allowed to the government which had been set 
up. The Union sentiment was thoroughly subdued. " 

In Kentucky Valley, Ala., ten Unionists were 
arrested at their homes, taken to a Primitive Baptist 
church and tried by the vigilantes, and condemned as 
submissionists and as traitors to the Southern Confed- 
eracy, and immediately shot. Their names were : G. 
W. Castleman, Eli Paul Manning, Geo. Pentecost, 



TUPELO. 353 

Emory Paden, Rodman Tankersley, Sydney Smith, 
John Bunyan, Verner Kaiser Knight, Clay Bonar, 
and David Crockett, Jr. 

Like the ferocious tiger when he tastes blood, 
they started to arrest Louis Satertlnvaite, a noted 
Unionist. Upon reaching his cabin they found it 
barricaded. They ordered Saterthwaite to open the 
door. He refused. Going to the woods they pro- 
cured a large log to be used as a battering-ram to 
break down the door. As they came within range a 
well directed volley from the cabin leveled ten of 
these miscreants in the dust. This unexpected de- 
fense caused the assailants to drop their battering-ram 
and beat a hasty retreat to an adjoining forest. Four 
of their number were killed outright: Joe. Hines, 
Sam Kendall, Bill Gaddy, and Josh Blue. The 
others managed to crawl into the woods, but Jo 
Bard well, through whose head a buckshot had passed,. 
died the next day. Saterthwaite had with him five 
friends, staunch Unionists, who resolved to sell their 
lives as dearly as possible. Their names were Mid- 
dleton Walker, John Franklin, Alonzo Winston,. 
Morris Jefferson, and Pelham Shelby. Upon the 
retreat of their enemies they held a council of war 
and decided that as soon as the twilight deepened into 
night they would make their escape, and abandoning 
their homes and families for a time, would follow the 
polar star till they reached some Union outpost. 
They well knew that the discomfited vigilantes 
would soon return with large reinforcements, and 
23 



354 TUPELO. 

they had no hope that mercy would be shown them 
by these infuriate demons incarnate. Two days 
elapsed before the vigilantes returned. They came 
five hundred strong, led by Aaron Bloch, a virulent 
secessionist, but such was their dread that they did 
not dare leave the woods. At length, the cannon 
which they had sent for arrived, and they, with this 
engine of war, demolished the cabin without demand- 
ing a surrender. But the birds had flown and were 
far on their way toward the Federal lines. A large 
company for pursuit was organized. Fifty hounds 
were secured and put on the trail. For four days 
they followed fast. Saterthwaite and his little band of 
compatriots had reached the Union lines. The general 
in command, kindly granting his request, sent out a 
large force of cavalry to bring in the families of these 
men and of the ten that were murdered. Six hours 
after they had left the camp they heard the loud baying 
of the blood-hounds, indicating the near approach of 
their foes. Concealing themselves they awaited their 
advent. Soon they came in full view and in good 
range. . A well directed volley emptied many a sad- 
dle. They turned and fled. Pursuit was rapid. 
Twenty-five prisoners were captured, and many vigi- 
lantes were slain. The families were reached and 
brought into the Federal lines and sent north. As to 
the twenty-five prisoners, Rufus Curlee, their leader, 
was compelled to witness the death by hanging of 
twenty-three of the number. Curlee then met the 
fate of his confederates in guilt. Gideon Brevoort 



TUPELO. 35") 

was recognized by Saterthwaite as a Unionist who 
was compelled to join this band of pursuers as a 
guide, in order to save his life. He was brought in 
with them and at once enlisted in the service of the 
government in a company of sappers and miners. 
He was a man of fine physique, and of great physical 
strength. He proved an invaluable addition to the 
service. Near the close of the war he was instantly 
killed by a rebel sharp-shooter, while engaged with 
others in the construction of a pontoon bridge, and 
w r as buried with the honors of war. His comrades 
erected a monument to his memory. They confis- 
cated a number of monuments found in a marble 
works in a town near their encampment. Two of 
their number, marble cutters, engraved on the monu- 
ment the following : "InMcmoriam. Died on the 
field of honor, March 1st, 180' -3, Gideon Brevoort, 
aged 32 yrs. 4 mos. and 15 days.'' 

Released from earthly care and strife, 
With Thee is hidden all his life ; 
Thy word is true, thy will is just, 
With thee we leave him, Lord, in trust. 

You who come my grave to view, 
A moment stop and think 
That I am in eternity 
And you are ou the hrink. 

Soldier, rest, thy warfare o'er, 
Sleep the sleep that knows no waking, 
Dream of hattle tields no more, 
Days of danger, nights of waking. 

Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the 
time is. Mark xiii. 33. 



356 TUPELO. 

So let him rest beneath the sod, 
His form with us, his soul with God. 
Eequiescat in pace. 

If we had not removed our encampment, his 
friends, Seymour Carpenter and Marquis Glover, 
would have covered the whole monument with laud- 
atory inscriptions and epitaphs. 

A letter from his brother, Prof. Franklin Brevoort, 
found in Gideon's tent after his burial, may be 
interesting : 

Memphis, Tenn., Dec. 16, 1864. 
Dear Brother: 

I have just learned your address. I, too, 
made my escape to the Federal lines. When 
the tocsin of war sounded I was teaching in Pensacola, 
Florida. Teachers and ministers employed in their 
vocation were by Confederate law exempt from service 
in the. army. When the summer vacation of 1861 
came I felt that body, soul, and spirit with united 
voice demanded rest — a period of absolute freedom 
from all secular cares and avocations. The duties of 
the class-room had been peculiarly severe and exacting 
during the academic year just closed. But the trying 
ordeal was passed, and vacation had come. Homer 
and Horace, Virgil and Xenophon, Legendre and 
Bourdon, Watts and Whately, and all the tomes of 
ancient and modern lore were consigned for the time 
to the gloomy alcoves of the library, there to rest in 
silent companionship till vacation ended and schol- 
astic duties were resumed. 



TUPELO. 357 

The young men have donned their hunting ap- 
parel and hied away to the forest, where the red deer 
wander, and to the rivers, where the finny tribes 
abound, and I, whither shall I go? The bow that 
is kept continually in a high state of tension, and 
the mind that is never relaxed, lose elasticity and 
become permanently impaired. The environment 
has a tendency to recall the duties performed in it, 
which one wishes wholly to throw off for a time, 
and thus the benefits of recreation are dimin- 
ished. It is better, therefore, that needful rot be 
taken at some place remote from the scenes of labor. 
New scenes, new faces, new employments divert the 
mind, and call into action other faculties, and give 
those that have been overburdened the desired rest. 
With this end in view I prepared to leave our classic 
shades and hie away to the home of one of my stu- 
dents, whose warm invitation I felt happy in accept- 
ing. On a beautiful morning, just as the auroral 
brightness was assuming a vermilion hue, sure har- 
binger of coming day, the colored coachman drove to 
my door and I was soon outward bound for the 
home of Jasper Pettigru, whose hospitable residence 
I was never to reach. The oriole, the mocking-bird, 
the paroquet flitted from tree to tree, and a great va- 
riety of feathered songsters made the forests vocal 
with their harmony, and by the brilliancy of their 
plumage encircled our pathway with a halo of glory. 
One could readily imagine himself in the enchanted 
land. The balmy air, the fragrant flowers, the sil- 



358 TUPELO. 

very, sparkling waters, the odor-laden breeze, all 
contributed to the highest happiness, the most ec- 
static delight of the votaries of pleasure — a crowd of 
whom were with me in the diligence. But ever and 
anon there came borne upon the unwilling breeze 
an agonizing sigh, proceeding from the inmost re- 
cesses of a bleeding, broken heart — a heart crushed 
by some sorrow too great to be sustained long and 
the victim live. I thought perhaps it is a fugitive 
slave on the top of the diligence who is being re- 
turned to his master. When we arrived at Daphne, 
Ala., where I intended lodging for the night with an 
old friend, Joe Poindexter, an officer got out of the 
diligence, ordered a carriage from the livery stable, 
and obtaining assistance, took a white man from the 
top of the stage and placed him on the rear seat of 
the carriage. He said this was a state prisoner whom 
he was conveying into the presence of Col. Bonham, 
at Tensas, to be dealt with as he was accustomed to 
deal with all tories. As my friend lived near Ten- 
sas, I mentioned this fact to this man, whose name was 
Major Samuel Rodney. Major Rodney said he would 
be glad to have me go with him for company. I 
at once accepted the proffered favor, having a desire 
to assist, if possible, this suffering Unionist. When 
within two miles of Tensas we came to the residence 
of a gentleman, a friend of Major Rodney, Col. 
Wardlaw by name (if my memory is correct). A 
dance was in progress at his house, and he insisted 
upon Major Rodney's attending the dance. The 



TUPELO. 359 

major said this cl — d tory must be delivered to- 
night to Col. Bonham. " Can't your friend take 
him in?" replied the colonel. "Yes, or I can drive 
in and return," said the major. "You'd miss oceans 
of fun if you were to do that. Just send him in and 
let your friend put the team in the livery stable at 
Tensas. I'll send for it in the morning." I cor- 
dially assented to this arrangement. 

After driving a few hundred yards I asked my 
prisoner to give me his story. He replied that his 
name was Isaac Simpson, that he was a Unionist, 
and supposed that this would be the last night of his 
life, as Col. Bonham spared the lives of no Unionists, 
and that he would not recant his opinions to save his 
life. I replied, " I, too, am a Unionist." "Glory 
to God," said the prisoner, " then there is yet hope 
for me." "Yes, we will survive or perish together." 
Col. Rodney had given me the key of the prisoner's 
manaeles. I had no difficulty in liberating him. 
There was no road by which to turn off, so we were 
compelled to go into Tensas, then bear north, and 
trust in God for divine guidance. We drove rapidly. 
and were far, very far from Tensas by daylight. Near 
Shongalo, Smith Co., Miss., we sold our horses and 
carriage to a planter for $500, Confederate money. 
At Tougaloo, Hinds Co., we bought suits of clothes 
in order to conceal our identity. At Brandon, Miss., 
we bought tickets for Grand Junction, Tenn., and 
without any further special adventures reached Cairo, 
111., where we both enlisted in the Federal service. 



3G0 TUPELO. 

At Brandon I bought a newspaper which gave a de- 
scription of us, and offered a large reward for our 
capture. 

Prof. Simpson has never yet been able to corres- 
pond with his family, nor has he heard what may 
have befallen them since his arrest ; nor have I been 
able to visit my student friend for whose hospitable 
mansion I started in what appears, because of the 
thronging events and various vicissitudes of the past 
years, to be the "auld lang syne." We hope that 
soon the bottom will fall out of that rotten old hulk 
— the Southern Confederacy. 

Please write to me at your very earliest conven- 
ience and tell me all about yourself. 

Your affectionate brother, 

Franklin Brevoort. 

The song of war shall echo through the mountains 

Till not one hateful link remains 

Of slavery's lingering chains, 

Till not one tyrant treads our plains, 
Nor traitor lips pollute our fountains. 

Princeton, Gibson Co., Indiana. 

On April 29, 1877, occurred the cold-blooded 
assassination of Judge Chisholm, of Kemper Co., 
Miss., and the killing of his little son and the wound- 
ing of his brave young daughter, aged eighteen, who 
died of her wounds soon after. This tragedy, and 
the fact that every physician in the place refused to 
attend upon her dying father and herself, reveal the 



TUPELO. 361 

state of terrorism which prevailed under the reign of 
the " White League " in the South. 

An armed band of two hundred chivalrous white 
men attacked this family, and after the brave young 
girl had, with her right arm, parried the guns of sev- 
eral of those defenders of their rights, which were 
placed almost against her father's breast, while with 
the other arm around her wounded father's neck, she 
received a wound which shattered her right hand and 
was six times wounded in one of her lesrs. Her 
father at last fell, pierced by eleven balls. Pie still 
lived, and this heroic girl, though fatally wounded 
herself, assisted her dying father to their home, a 
distance of over one hundred yards. Her younger 
brother of thirteen years of age was shot dead while 
clinging to his father. Gov. Stone, of Mississippi, 
refused to send aid and protection to this distressed 
family. The great crime of which Judge Chisholm 
was guilty was his staunch adherence to the govern- 
ment, and his attempt to enforce the laws as sheriff 
of the county. 

Near this, Rev. James Pelan, my dear friend and 
co-presbyter, was murdered because of his avowed 
Union sentiments, though he was a non-combatant, 
and only desired to live in quietness and retirement 
till the contest was decided. We were both members 
of the Presbytery of Tombeckbee. I was by far 
less discreet than my friend Pelan. I could not con- 
ceal my sentiments by a judicious reticence when in 
the presence of avowed secessionists. My friend 



362 TUPELO. 

Pelan warned me again and again against rashness 
and ill-timed expression of opinions which would be 
sure to bring down upon my devoted head the mur- 
derous wrath of the devotees of treason. I still live, 
but my dear friend Pelan died a martyr to the truth, 
at the hands of those atrociously cruel men. 

When the southern people hate it is with great in- 
tensity ; if they love their love is intense. In the 
war times the secessionists would destroy Unionists 
as they would vipers or rattlesnakes or water moc- 
casins or cotton-mouths. They had no spark of 
sympathy or compassion for them. They loved their 
friends, and would promote their interests in every 
possible way. They took delight in serving their 
friends, and I personally owe them a debt of grat- 
itude for much kindness shown me by the southern 
people during my sojourn among them in the ante 
helium days. Any favor I desired was accorded 
gladly. I never found them deceitful. If they man- 
ifested friendship it was genuine, if they did not like 
any one they made no pretence of friendship. I 
found them generous and truthful. A minister in 
traveling always went directly to a brother minister's 
house, and invariably met a glad welcome and mu- 
nificent entertainment. I knew of one exception. 
The Rev. Mr. Bland, of Memphis Presbytery, visited 
the city of Memphis, accompanied by his wife. 
They Avent directly to the residence of the pastor of 
the 1st Presbyterian church of that city. They were 
received in the parlor. It was cold weather and 



TUPELO. 363 

there was no fire in the parlor. After remaining 
awhile, and receiving no invitation to stay, they left, 
quite indignant at their uncivil treatment. At the 
next session of presbytery the attention of presbytery 
was called to this incivility. The minister guilty of 
this breach of the rules of hospitality prevailing in 
the South found it necessary to make a humble apol- 
ogy for his rudeness. He, however, never regained 
the confidence of his brethren, and ere long found it 
necessary to seek another and distant field of labor. 

Mr. Woolley wished to borrow money from a Mr. 
Goodloe. Mr. John H. Brown, at the request of 
Mr. Woolley, agreed to become his security. Upon 
reflection, Mr. Brown changed his opinion in regard 
to becoming surety for Mr. Woolley, and instead of 
going to Mr. Woolley and informing him that he 
had reconsidered the matter and had reversed his 
decision, he went to Mr. Goodloe and said to him, 
"When Mr. Woolley comes to you and asks to bor- 
row money, I wish you would tell him that you 
have no money to lend." Mr. Goodloe replied, "I 
have the money to lend, and, sir, if a d — d lie has 
to be told you must tell it yourself." This affair 
becoming known, Mr. Brown lost caste at once in the 
community. 

I knew of four grave ciders in a northern church 
who wished to accomplish a certain purpose which 
they knew could only be attained by clandestine 
means. They held a private meeting, and alter a 
full discussion of the matter, agreed upon a false 



364 TUPELO. 

statement, to the principle underlying which at least 
two of their number were sentimentally opposed. 

At the next regular meeting of session, the one 
designated as spokesman, in solemn tones and with a 
sanctimonious air, made the statement agreed upon. 
Upon the presumption of the truth of the statement 
but one result could follow, and they secured the end 
desired. Upon the discovery of the falsehood, one 
of its perpetrators called upon the minister and said 
he hoped that he would not take offense at what they 
had done, as they had, at a private meeting, decided 
that the course they had pursued was the best to be 
taken under the circumstances. The minister re- 
plied that they should have told the truth and have 
given the real reasons which had led them to desire 
the end they had secured by falsehood. 

"Yes," he replied, "it would have been better. 
I was opposed to the principle upon which the state- 
ment was based. Yes, it would have been better to 
have told the truth." 

" Certainly it would, for you have led your minis- 
ter to make unwittingly a false statement to the other 
congregation in his pastoral charge, which, to estab- 
lish his own veracity, he must publicly correct, and 
must give his reasons for having been misled. This 
will necessarily criminate you, and expose your du- 
plicity. It was a sin of no small magnitude to 
fabricate a falsehood, and, in your official capacity as 
office-bearers in the church of Jesus Christ, deliber- 
ately, and in accordance with your preconcerted 



TUPELO. 365 

scheme announce it as the truth in order to accom- 
plish an end really beyond the realm of your juris- 
diction, and thus determine a matter by no means 
within your province to decide. It would have been 
the part of true wisdom, even after you had taken 
your seats as members of session, to have followed 
the dictates of an enlightened conscience, and the 
teachings of God's word, and to have uttered nothing 
but truth, though with the certainty of failure to 
accomplish your wicked and unhallowed purpose. 
The end, even though right, which it was not in this 
case, does not justify the use of such base, craven, 
cowardly means." 

This probably could not have occurred in the 
South. Lying is not one of their vices. It is re- 
garded as the act of a coward, who has not the prin- 
ciples of a brave and true man. Their sins are open 
before going to judgment. This probably could not 
occur again in the North. It was probably an 
anomalous case, without precedent or parallel. Four 
church officers, who have been elected as overseers of 
their brethren in spiritual things, conspiring together 
to fabricate a falsehood and to palm it off upon their 
unsuspecting minister as truth, is doubtless an act un- 
paralleled in and unknown to the annals of any other 
church North or South. 

It might be well to state that the spokesman, 
and probably the chief fabricator of the false state- 
ment, was neither born nor bred in America, nor was 
he brought up within the pale of the Presbyterian 
'hurch. 



366 . TUPELO. 

A custom which physicians tell me is as old as the 
medical profession universally prevails both North 
and South. Physicians are debarred by this custom, 
which is of as strongly binding force as if it were a 
statutory enactment, from making any charge for 
medical services rendered to ministers of all denomi- 
nations and their families, or to members of their 
own profession. Physicians inform me that they have 
never known this custom to be violated by any mem- 
ber of the medical fraternity who is in good and 
regular standing in his profession, and that were any 
physician to violate this custom, suspicion would 
attach to him at once. 

When I speak of the Southern people as truth fid 
prior to the war, I affirm that this is still a trait of 
their character, with this exception, they will defraud 
the "negroes and scalawags" of a free ballot and fair 
count by fraud, violence, and perjury. They do not 
attempt to conceal their conduct in this respect, de- 
claring it to be a political necessity for the preserva- 
tion of white supremacy. This they ar > determined 
to enforce in the church, the school, and the state, 
peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must. 

During the war southern Unionists, to avoid per- 
secution, would conceal their sentiments, sometimes 
deeming it necessary to resort to deception in speech 
and conduct to avoid imprisonment and death. 
Guerrillas, Jeif Davis' "partisan warrioi's," when 
arrested by Federal troops, would resort to every 
kind of subterfuge and deception to escape the 



TUPELO. 367 

penalty due their crimes. The course of Unionist 
and secessionist was very much like that' of the 
English during the wars of the roses, as indi- 
cated by a toast which used to be drank, in those 
days : 

" God bless the faith, God bless the faith's defender, 
God bless, no harm in blessing the pretender, 
But which pretender, or which king, 
God bless ns all, that's quite a different thing." 

Gen L. Q,. C. Lamar, of the rebel army, once said 
to me, " The ten commandments are suspended dur- 
ing the prevalence of war." This seemed to be a 
true statement ; at all events the Southern Confederacy 
ignored them all during its whole wicked existence. 
" later anna leges silent" was its motto and practice, 
both in regard to Divine and human laws, till God 
in his providence and wrath blotted out its name as a 
nation from under heaven — a justly merited doom. 

The heroism of the loyal women of the South, in 
their patient, uncomplaining endurance of persecu- 
tion, often unto death, is deserving of lasting remem- 
brance. They concealed their husbands, sons, 
brothers, and lovers from the rage and malice of the 
secessionists, in swamps, caverns, and mountain fast- 
nesses, and at the risk of life carried them provisions 
while in hiding. They toiled with their own hands 
in the field to procure a support for themselves and 
those dependent upon them. Many sleepless vigils 
were endured by them while they and those dear to 
them were every hour environed by fearful peril. 



368 TUPELO. 

They possessed intense convictions. They were 
women of faith and prayer, and they abounded in 
good works. The remembrances of those righteous, 
holy, and loyal women is blessed. 

O, woman, great is thy faith. — Jesus Christ. 

A good -woman is the loveliest flower that hlooms under 
heaven. — Thackeray. 

Ah ! me, heyond all power to name, those worthies tried and 

true, 
Brave men, fair women, youth and maid pass hy in grand 

review. — Whittier. 

Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung, 
Not she denied him with unholy tongue, 
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave, 
Last at the cross and earliest at the grave. 

Read the fresh annals of our land : the gathering dust of time 
Not yet has fallen on the scroll to dim the tale sublime ; 
There woman's g'.ory proudly shines, for willingly she gave 
Her costliest offerings to uphold the generous and the brave 
Who fought her country's battles well; and oft she periled 

life 
To save a father, brother, friend, in those dark years of strife. 
Whatever strong-armed man hath wrought, whatever he hath 

won, 
That goal hath woman also reached, that action hath she done. 

Ashley, Luzerne Co., Pa. 



TUPELO. 369 

THE NORTH AND SOUTH CONTRASTED. 

Iii the year of our Lord, 1856, I listened to an 
address pronounced by Col. Jefferson Davis, in Holly 
Springs, Mississippi, in which he strongly and un- 
equivocally avowed secession sentiments, and urged his 
auditors to make due preparation for it, as it was an 
event greatly to be desired and would be an accom- 
plished fact in the near future, as sure as fate. He 
thus spoke : 

"The people of the North and South are not hom- 
ogeneous and they never have been. From the first 
the Union was an alliance between two peoples as 
diverse in habits, manners and customs, and modes of 
thought as in their climates and productions. The 
South has always been restive under this bond. 
There are strong contrasts between the character- 
istics and idiosyncrasies of the people of each section. 
These existed in the mother country. The chivalric 
Norman Cavaliers settled the South. The Puritans 
of Saxon origin, exiled and poverty stricken, settled 
on the cold, rugged, bleak, and inhospitable shores of 
New England. When I contemplate the hostility 
of their descendants to our peculiar, patriarchal, popu- 
lar, and truly beneficent institution — an institution so 
essential to southern prosperity, and the conservation 
and development of a high type of civilization, I can 
look with great leniency upon the persecution and 
banishment by our ancestors of a people so super- 
stitious, hypocritical, inappreciative, meddlesome, and 
24 



370 TUPELO. 

refractory. They brought the same spirit with them 
to the new world. They envy us our superior civil- 
ization and many advantages. The Norman and the 
Saxon can never coalesce. They can never live un- 
der the same government on terms of equality. The 
Norrnan, by his ancestral traditions, by his intellect- 
ual superiority and restless ambition, aspires to bear 
rule and hold the reins of government. And this 
consummation of his hopes and aims he eventually 
secures. All history proves this. The Cavaliers 
have always been the rulers. The Puritans the 
ruled. There is no common bond of sympathy, no 
affinity by which to cement the heterogeneous ele- 
ments into homogeneity. Slavery gives us superiority 
so patent that the world readily recognizes it. "When 
our citizens travel abroad they are accorded honors 
never bestowed upon Yankee travelers.- Labor to 
wring by the sweat of the face a bare subsistence out 
of a barren glebe, leaves upon the features the in- 
effaceable marks of their plebeian condition and origin. 
I have seen them abroad aping the manners of the 
refined and cultured Southron, and northern mud- 
sills is the whispered comment of the courtly Euro- 
pean, who cannot be deceived by the exhibition of the 
stolen livery. The ass's ears protrude from the 
lion's skin. 

" They threaten war if we secede. We would have 
secession, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must. 
If they force war upon us because we spurn with 
contempt governmental association with them, let 



TUPELO. 371 

them come. We will welcome them with bloody 
hands to hospitable graves. There is, however, no 
necessity for any fear that the Yankees will attempt 
to retain us by force in a Union which we will sever 
whatever may be the consequences. I will volunteer 
to shed all the blood from my own veins that will 
be necessary to be shed because of the secession of 
Mississippi from the Union. We have submitted 
too long to Yankee insolence and domination. I 
long to enjoy the sweets of liberty, and to see my 
fellow-citizens of Mississippi in the enjoyment of 
them. I was educated in the North and I regard it 
as the greatest misfortune of my life. I fear that 
during my sojourn there I adopted insensibly some 
of their brusque manners and imbibed some of 
the modes of thought of an inferior people. I think, 
however, I have gotten quit of them, but it required 
extraordinary and persistent effort to do so. I would 
advise our people to patronize no longer teachers and 
ministers from the North. They insidiously instill 
sentiments hostile to southern interests. Their stu- 
dents and parishioners are in peril so long as they are 
under the mental and moral instruction of men born 
and bred in the abolition states. Our slave-holding 
population not subject to the necessity of manual labor 
have all their time to devote to literary pursuits, to the 
rites of hospitality, and to social and convivial pleasures 
and recreations. This is impossible among a people 
toiling for a livelihood, their minds engrossed with 
the problems connected with the daily supply of their 



372 TUPELO. 

physical necessities, taking thought in regard to what 
they shall eat, what they shall drink, and wherewithal 
they shall be clothed. Physical drudgery is their pre- 
destined lot, and concomitant mental anxiety attending 
it precludes the possibility of a high degree of culture 
and refinement. The otium cum dignitate is found alone 
in southern society. Slavery removes us far from 
the untoward condition that militates against ad- 
vanced thought. 

" The slave, the serf, the peasant, the mudsills of 
society, will always exist to toil and perform neces- 
sary physical drudgery. Providence has so ordained 
it, and has so constituted society. There are the 
ruler and the ruled, the noble and the peasant, the 
slave and his master, the employe and the employer. 
Those who toil and moil, and those who enjoy the 
fruit of their labor. And we do not wish to rebel at 
the allotments of Divine Providence. Providence 
has been kind to us, and we must not surrender our 
birthright. Cotton is king, and we must see to it 
that he is not dethroned. We can rule the North 
better out of the Union than in it. New England 
avarice will bow the supple knee to our king. They 
must have cotton. Subvert their manufacturing in- 
terests and they perish. They will perforce become 
tributary to us, and it will be a happy sight to be- 
hold the Yankee cringing at our feet, supplicating us 
for permission to live — his insolence all gone, his 
moral ideas radically changed, and his hostility to 
slavery merged into professed love for our peculiar 



TUPELO. 373 

institution. I ani'not :i prophet, nor a prophet's son, 
but I will venture the prediction that another decade 
will not pass until all these things will be fulfilled. 
Heaven speed the clay of their complete consumma- 
tion. Coming events cast their shadows before." 

Pollard, the historian of The Lost Cause, thus 
speaks of an address of President Davis upon the re- 
turn of the peace commissioners, Hunter, Campbell, 
and Stevens: " He made a powerful and eloquent 
address, but in parts of it he fell into weak and bom- 
bastic speech, and betrayed that boastful characteris- 
tic of almost all his oral utterances in the war. As 
a writer, Mr. Davis is careful, meditative, and full of 
dignity ; but as a speaker he is imprudent, and in 
moments of passion he frequently blurts out what 
iirst comes into his mind. On this occasion he was 
boastful, almost to the point of grotesqueness. He 
declared that the march which Sherman was then 
making would be his last, and would conduct him to 
ruin. He predicted that before the summer solstice 
fell upon the country it would be the Xorth that 
would be soliciting peace. He affirmed that the 
military situation of the Confederacy was all that he 
could desire, and drawing up his figure, and in tones 
of scornful defiance heard to the remotest parts of tin' 
building, he remarked that the Federal authorities 
who had so complacently conferred with the com- 
missioners of the Confederacy little knew that they 
were talking to their masters." 

A quotation from the same history will lie perti- 



374 TUPELO. 

nent: " Slavery is the most prominent cause of dis- 
tinction between the civilizations or social autonomies 
of North and South. In the ante-revolutionary 
period the differences between the populations of the 
northern and southern colonies had already been 
strongly marked. The early colonists did not bear 
with them, from the mother country to the shores of 
the New World, any greater degree of congeniality 
than existed among them at home. They had come, 
not only from different stocks of population, but 
from different feuds, in religion and politics. There 
could be no congeniality between the Puritan exiles 
who established themselves upon the cold, rugged, 
and cheerless soil of New England, and the Cavaliers 
who sought the brighter climate of the South, and 
drank in their baronial halls in Virginia confusion 
to round-heads and regicides. The intolerance of the 
Puritan, the painful thrift of the northern colonists, 
their external forms of piety, their lack of the senti- 
mentalism which makes up the half of modern civili- 
zation, are traits of character visible in their descend- 
ants. On the other hand, the colonists of Virginia 
and the Carolinas were from the first distinguished 
for their polite manners, their fine sentiments, their 
attachment to a sort of feudal life, their landed gen- 
try, their love of field sports and dangerous adventure, 
and the prodigal and improvident aristocracy that 
dispensed its stores in constant rounds of hospitality 
and gaiety. Slavery established in the South a pecu- 
liar and noble typo of civilization. It was not with- 



TUPELO. 375 

out attendant vices, but the virtues which followed 
in its train were numerous and peculiar, and asserted 
the general good effect of the institution on the ideas 
and manners of the South. If habits of command 
sometimes degenerated into cruelty and insolence, yet 
in numerous instances they inculcated notions of 
chivalry, polished the manners, and produced many 
noble and generous virtues. If the relief of a large 
class of whites from the demands of physical labor 
gave occasion in some instances for idle and dissolute 
lives, yet at the same time it afforded opportunity for 
extraordinary culture, elevated the standards of 
scholarship in the South, enlarged and emancipated 
social intercourse, and established schools of individ- 
ual refinement. The South had an element in its 
society — a landed gentry — which the North envied, 
and for which its substitute was a coarse, ostentatious 
aristocracy, that smelt of the trade, and that, however 
it cleansed itself and aped the elegance of the South, 
could never entirely subdue a sneaking sense of its 
own inferiority. The civilization of the North was 
coarse and materialistic. That of the South was 
scant of shows, but highly refined and sent i mental. 
The South was a vast agricultural country, waste 
lands, forest, and swamps often gave to the eye a 
dreary picture ; there were no thick and intricate 
nets of internal improvement to astonish and bewil- 
der the traveler, no country picturesque with towns 
and villages to please his vision. Northern men 
ridiculed the apparent scantiness of the South, and 



376 TUPELO. 

took it as an evidence of inferiority. But this was 
the coarse judgment of the surface of things. The 
agricultural pursuits of the South fixed its features, 
and however it might decline in the scale of gross 
prosperity, its people were trained in the highest 
civilization, were models of manners for the whole 
country, rivaled the sentimental isni of the oldest 
countries of Europe, established the only schools of 
honor in America, and presented a striking contrast 
in their well-balanced character to the conceit and 
giddiness of the Northern people. There is a singu- 
larly bitter hate which is inseparable from a sense of 
inferiority, and every close observer of northern soci- 
ety has discovered how there lurked in every form of 
hostility to the South, the conviction that the north- 
ern man, however disguised with ostentation, was 
coarse and inferior in comparison with the aristocracy 
and chivalry of the South." 

Pollard states, at the close of his history, that " the 
Confederates have gone out of the war with the con- 
sciousness that they were the better men." 

Pollard also states that the people of the South 
were reduced to terrible straits during the war. He 
thinks the lowest degree of humiliation Mas reached 
when delicate and refined ladies were compelled to 
perform the drudgery of cooking for themselves and 
their children to avoid starvation. The whole tenor 
of southern teaching led to the prevalent belief that 
manual or mental labor for pecuniary remuneration 
was degrading. The degradation of labor was 



TUPELO. IT. 

dreaded by all classes and conditions of the white-. 
The colored people were driven to it by the lash. 

Manual labor was associated in the southern mind 
with slavery. In the eleven seceded states forming 
the Southern Confederacy there were but two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand slave-holders. The great 
majority of the white population were non-slave- 
holders. Social ostracism was rigorously enforced. 
The poor whites were less esteemed by the rich than 
the slaves. Many of the slaves were more intelli- 
gent than they. Notably the house servants, who, 
by their intimate association with their masters' fami- 
lies, had gained a surprising amount of general infor- 
mation. Many of them were mulattoes, quadroons, 
and octoroons. They entertained a very low estimate 
of the poor white, regarding him as much lower in 
the scale of intelligence than themselves. The 
cracker and the sandhiller were the objects of their 
derision. They scorned association with them, and 
often spoke of them and treated them with scorn and 
contempt. A refrain to one of their popular songs 
is brusque but expresses the truth : 

" My name's Sam, I don't care a d — n, 
I'd rather be a nigger than a poor white man." 

The cause of the poverty and illiteracy of the poor 
whites of the South is easily accounted for by their 
history and disabilities. Bancroft, the historian, 
thus speaks of this class: 

"A class of people dwell in the southern states 
whose history and character have received less atten- 



378 tupei.o. 

tion than they deserve. These people have been 
properly called the poor whites of the South. The 
original charter of King James, extending from 
Florida to the present northern boundary of the 
United States, was divided into two departments, 
named North and South Virginia. They have ulti- 
mately become the North and the South. The South 
was originally colonized by the Norman element, 
then esteemed the English aristocracy, while the 
North was chiefly peopled by the race termed the 
Saxon, an equality and liberty loving people. The 
South, from the first sought to maintain high and low 
classes ; the North equality. At a certain time the 
English Government opened its prisons and poured 
forth a flood of convicts upon the southern colonies. 
At this period the aristocratic party, both in England 
and America, was hostile to educating the lower 
classes. 

"Sir William Berkley, an early governor of Vir- 
ginia, said, ' Every man instructs his children accord- 
ing to his ability;' a method which left the ignorant 
in hopeless blindness. The instinct of aristocracy 
dreaded the general diffusion of intelligence, and even 
the enfranchising influence of the ministers. 'The 
ministers,' continued Sir William, 'should pray 
oftcner and preach less. But I thank God there are 
no free schools, no printing, and I hope we shall not 
have them these hundred years, for learning has 
brought disobedience, heresy, and sects into the world, 
and printing has divulged them and libels against 



TUPELO. 379 

the best government. God keep ns from both.' 
Bancroft's Hist., Vol. II. The people of the South 
now became permanently divided into an aristocracy 
and the convict race of poor whites. The latter, for 
the want of education, were disqualified to rise, and 
sank deeper and deeper into wickedness and degrada- 
tion, lost all spirit of enterprise and self-respect, and 
became too indolent to seek fortunes or better their 
condition. In the east they habited along the coasts of 
North and South Carolina, and near large rivers, as the 
Great Pedee, Yadkin, and Cape Fear, a climate that 
favored their indolence. They lived on oysters, crabs, 
and periwinkles, and had a strange habit of eating clay, 
hence they were known by the name of clay-eaters. 
A more substantial subsistence, however, was fur- 
nished from half wild hogs and cattle. The former 
of these subsisted in the woods upon roots and mast, 
the latter upon browse and range. To these may be 
added the opossum, fattened upon wild grapes. 
About the same time with the convicts, the negro 
race was introduced into this country, which, from the 
first, Mas held to be more respectable than the convict 
race. The traveler, passing up the Pedee on the 
early steamboats which navigated it, would be sur- 
prised to see at night-fall fires lighted up along the 
banks and on the neighboring hills. Upon en- 
quiring he would be told that these were the encamp- 
ments of the poor whites for the sake of shad fishing. 
[f he were a European, it would lead him to think 
of the gvpsies of his native country ; indeed they re- 



380 TUPELO. 

semble the gypsies. Their habits are migratory, 
they own no real estate, and might, not inappropri- 
ately, be called American gypsies. Their want of 
enterprise and energy has been mentioned. To this, 
however, there were exceptions. Many picked up 
courage and beat back to the mountains. The famous 
county of Buncombe was largely settled by poor 
whites. Some of these were descendants of depreda- 
tors and murderers who possessed great energy. The 
spirit of violence continuing in the veins of some, 
would reappear in future generations by the law of 
heredity. Hence from the notorious Buncombe were 
known to come many notorious characters, so that 
any violent character in the settlement of the South- 
west was commonly slanged with the epithet of 
"Roarer from Bunkum," and in the same phra- 
seology, a plucky deed was denominated "Bunkum." 
Some of the most audacious thieves and bloody high- 
waymen that ever infested the earth emigrated to the 
South-west from the Pedee and Yadkin. Such were 
the Puebloes of East Tennessee, and the Harpea of 
Kentucky. The majority of these people have not 
the least tendency to acknowledge God or recognize 
religion. In this they coincide with the gypsies, but 
profanity uttered in the most trite and distasteful 
oaths seemed to them a second nature. They practice 
every vice and have but few virtues. Families of 
the patrician order, falling into decay, are compelled 
by force of circumstances to migrate north or to unite 
their destiny with this class. And many families of 



TUPELO. 381 

poor but respectable people, being unable to educate 
their children because of the expense attending it, 
and manual labor being considered disgraceful, grad- 
ually sink till they become blended with the poor 
and vicious whites. Their aristocratic neighbors lend 
no helping hand to enable them to avoid this catastro- 
phe, and avert a fate worse than death. 

In the ante bcllum days there was not a single free 
school for the education of youth in the seven states 
which afterward seceded and organized the Southern 
Confederacy. The dominant class, the slave-holders, 
numbered but a quarter of a million. This class ig- 
nored the existence of the poor whites, excejit so far 
as it was possible to use them, and they ruled with 
rigor over the blacks, and wishing to extend their 
domination they determined to rule or ruin the whole 
United States of America. According to state laws, 
it was a criminal act to teach a slave to read. Al- 
though there was no statutory enactment to prevent 
the children of the poor whites from receiving in- 
struction, they were debarred from even a rudiment- 
ary education by their environment. Free schools 
were unknown, the slave-holders controlled the 
schools and rigorously excluded the children of the 
poor. It seemed an utter impossibility for a child 
belonging to the lower class to secure an education. 
Senator McDuffie, of South Carolina, became the 
patron of a poor white child, and gave him the ben- 
efit of the schools. He learned rapidly and became 
an eminent minister, known to the world as Rev. 



382 TUPELO. 

Jas. PL Thorn well, D.D. Some ladies educated a 
poor white boy who is known to fame as Hon. Alex- 
ander Stephens. It is not for want of intellectuality, 
but for lack of opportunity that the children of the 
poor whites are ignorant. It seems strange that Dr. 
Thornwcll and Alexander Stephens should have be- 
come champions of slavery, the institution guilty of 
oppressing beyond measure the class to which they 
belonged, and in which they would have remained had 
it not been for the charity of individuals whose be- 
nevolence in this line was a glorious exception to the 
prevalent sentiment of the southern aristocracy. 

I was principal of the high school connected with 
the Princeton, Ind., graded schools. A number of 
refugee children belonging to the poor white class of 
the South attended these schools. They fully equaled 
the other children in progress in their studies. After- 
ward I was superintendent of the Cambridge City 
and Leavenworth graded schools, in the same state, 
and found many children of refugee families in attend- 
ance. These children showed no intellectual inferior- 
ity, but kept equal pace with the other children in 
all their studies. The masses of the people in the 
South were deprived of every privilege. They were 
kept in ignorance, that they might not know their 
wrongs, and they were reduced to and kept in ex- 
treme poverty by every possible device, that they 
might not be able to rise superior to the degradation 
which their environment had forced upon them. To 
contemplate this bestial wretchedness, hopeless igno- 



TUPELO. 383 

ranee, and forlorn condition, filled with joy the souls 
of the aristocratic slave-holding oligarchy — if it be 
conceded that they were possessed of souis. 

Slave-holders were bitterly opposed to the educa- 
tion of the masses, and used every possible means to 
prevent their acquiring even the ability to read and 
write. They desired for their own caste a monopoly 
of wealth, culture, and everything that rendered life 
worth living. There were some glorious exceptions 
to this view. Tishomingo county, in the north- 
eastern corner of» Mississippi, contained many Scotch 
and Scotch-Irish people. These people were anxious 
to give their children a good education. There were 
but few slaves in the county and the majority of the 
people could not be induced to favor secession. A 
Presbyterian minister, who became president of 
Corona Female College, located in Corinth, Miss., 
strove by tongue and pen to rouse the people of the 
state to adopt measures looking to the education of 
the masses. He delivered an address before the leg:- 
islature at Jackson, urging upon the legislators the 
necessity of adopting a free school system for the 
state, but his efforts were looked upon with disfavor 
by the slave-holders; some of his utterances had the 
true ring and were well-nigh prophetic. This 
divine, Rev. L. B. Gaston, published an article in the 
Corona Wreath, a monthly periodical, edited by his 
wife, Mrs. Susan B. Gaston, which I will copy. Its 
earnest plea for the general diffusion of knowledge 
among the people only rendered Mr. Gaston unpop- 



384 TUPELO. 

ular, and failed of convincing men joined to their 
idol — slavery, that popular education was desirable. 
This article was published in the July number in the 
year 1858 : 

" The idea of universal education is the grand cen- 
tral idea of the age. But in this country no system, 
however perfect, no enactments, however enlightened, 
and no authority, however constituted, can attain to the 
full accomplishment of their object, however praise- 
worthy and laudable, without the hearty and efficient 
co-operation of public sentiment. These extracts arv> 
taken from Randall's Common School System of New 
York, and are placed at the head of our speculations 
on the subject of education, as indicative of our feel- 
ings and purposes in adopting it as a standing theme 
for discussion and remark. It is even now apparent 
that the current century will be noted in the pages of 
history for the educational progress made by the hu- 
man family, for the expansion given to the idea that 
knowledge is power; and for the device and estab- 
lishment of a comprehensive system of popular in- 
struction. In committing to record its memorable 
events, it will be the future historian's task to trace 
the rise of national dominion and grandeur to the 
introduction of schools for the instruction of the 
masses, and to contrast the conditions of those states 
and kingdoms that adopted or rejected the policy. 
With almost prophetic pen we can predict the attain- 
ment of empire to the little kingdom of Prussia, 
simply from a consideration of the vast moral and 



TUPELO. 385 

intellectual power that is now growing up through 
the medium of her common school system, which 
was perfected in 1819. As the past history of the 
world furnishes no parallel to such a case — a people 
universally educated iu the best literature, science, art, 
and religion that time has ever produced — we know 
not how to estimate the force, or calculate the action 
of her power ; but this generation will not pass away 
before the national policy of Prussia will tell upon 
the destinies of Europe. AVe have the light of all 
past ages to show that a people trained or educated 
to be of one mind and feeling are irresistible to all 
surroundingfRiations not so taught or disciplined. 
Xumbers in this comparison are of minor conse- 
quence. Mind has always governed matter, or mere 
laute force, and so it ever will govern. Regarding 
this as the order of nature, and looking to the condi- 
tion and prospects of our own country, our feelings 
are profoundly stirred with mingled emotion. In 
one portion of it we find that education is fullv 
appreciated, and the means of dispensing it to all are 
judiciously applied. The North has always been dis- 
tinguished for its attention to this great social inter- 
est, but within the last thirty years it has made 
advances that seem to border on perfection". By 
means of public meetings, addresses, and lectures, 
teachers' associations and institutes, governors' mes- 
sages and superintendents' reports, the public mind 
has become thoroughly imbued with the spirit of 
education. The cities, towns, and populated country 



Z86 TUPELO. 

Lave been meted out and districted for schools, with- 
in a convenient distance from every man's dwelling, 
and in some states the school-house door, like that of 
the church, is thrown open and made free to all of a 
schoolable age. These measures and appliances that 
constitute the most powerful machinery for intellect- 
ual elaboration and development arc almost unknown 
in the South. The work of education with them is 
the movement of a spirit, with us it is the operation 
of a simple sense of expediency. They have accu- 
mulated means of knowledge, we are dependent. 

" There yon may see the evolution of the steam en- 
gine in its thousand protean forms, #f the steam 
threshers, and diggers, and reapers, of the Cyclopean 
gnomes that mould iron like wax, of the machines 
that sew, weld, stamp, dovetail, bevel, shear, turn, 
weigh, weave, spin, saw, veneer. We are compar- 
atively destitute of all these mechanical appliances 
and powers. They have type foundries, book- 
printing presses, authors, writers, publishers, and 
other instrumentalities for producing and dispensing 
knowledge of which we have scarcely any. They 
furnish our school-books, our center table and library 
books, and most of our current and periodical litera- 
ture. They provide, prepare, and administer the 
larger portion of our intellectual food, and God 
never made a man, much less a people, to receive 
sustenance without being subject to the sustainer. 
AVhile we, therefore, take pride in the North, as a 
portion of our country, for the eminence to which it 



TUPELO. 387 

has attained in the world of letters, and the glory to 
which it is advancing, we cannot but view with sen- 
sations of alarm the adverse bearing and threatening 
tendency of its social organism upon the state and 
well-being of the South. 

"The difference of attention paid to the single mat- 
ter of education by the two sections of the Union, 
North and South, leads directly to the generation of 
a strife between them, the most bitter and destructive 
contests for power will inevitably grow out of un- 
equal association. The wiser and more crafty por- 
tion will strive to rule its less cultivated and capable 
associate. To those who have the discernment to 
perceive it, this is no longer a philosophical spec- 
ulation; it is stubborn and grating fact. The North 
already holds three of the four great reins of na- 
tional control — commerce, manufactures, and legisla- 
tion. It would soon have the fourth, religion, had 
not our southern politicians had sense enough (and 
just about sense enough) to discover what Mas going 
on, and by a sort of wild, vehement clamor, rouse the 
whole nation to a feeling of the wrong meditated 
against our political rights. It remained only for 
our pulpit and religious press to become thoroughly 
abolitionized for the North to have consummated its 
purpose — absolute ascendency. But the resistance 
of the South, through its politicians, has brought a 
healthier religious sentiment, and a reaction favor- 
able to it is taking place in our own country and 
throughout the world. But this advantage is of 



388 TUPELO. 

small moment, and will soon pass away, if not hus- 
banded and vigorously improved by a direct resort 
to fundamental considerations. Our stumping pol- 
iticians as a class are very ordinary men, and as pub- 
lic teachers are exceedingly unreliable. Generally 
the braggart and buffoon is more than a match for 
the sober, earnest, sound reasoner before the people. 
The rank of competition for office is deteriorating 
and becoming less gifted in almost every canvass. 
The great lights of former days have expired, and 
we have no successors to Hayne, Crawford, Calhoun, 
Randolph, Clay, Benton, and Jackson to lift up and 
bear onward the banner of the South. In legisla- 
tion and governmental policy we can no longer cope 
with the North. Unrestrained by constitutions and 
unchecked by master minds, they will use us at dis- 
cretion, and our wisdom will be to bear it. Revolt, 
secession, or revolution will be worse than madness ; 
for we can build no Chinese wall high and strong 
enough to bar the intercourse or intrusion of neigh- 
bors wiser than we are. We are doomed to degra- 
dation low, if we do not change materially the present 
aspect of things. 

"And let us pause to consider what there is innate 
in man or people to produce such disparity of prog- 
ress and power. AVhy are they our masters? Why 
can they control our labor, dictate our opinions, 
agitate our passions, and lull us into quiescence as 
they choose? 

"Is it because they are naturally our superiors in 



TUPELO. 389 

whatever advances man over his fellow-man? Has 

our Yankee brother a clearer head, a .sounder heart, 
and a biffo-er soul than a southern born? Does he 
grow up on a more fruitful soil, under a more genial 
sun, or in a wider field for the expansion of mind 
and the cultivation of genius? Can we believe that 
the people who generate and mature such moral mon- 
strosities as Millerism, Mormonism, Free-loveism, 
Spiritism, Beecherism, women's rights convention-, 
etc., etc., arc the people that Heaven has ordained to 
be our rulers? Eternal Justice forbid it. And vet 
we arc the strong man shorn and bound — the Phil- 
istines are upon us. Why is it so? What is it? 
We demand, what is it that makes the difference be- 
tween the North and South. It is simply education. 
Would that we had a hundred tongues and iron voice 
to proclaim it till every southern ear should hear it 
in notes of startling thunder. We are overmatched. 
We are subdued, and from this thralldom there is no 
escape by human means, but by the redeeming pro- 
cess of universal education. To have the work par- 
tially done — one class taughtand another neglected — 
is only aggravating the evils of our condition. It is 
quickening the body politic to feel the miseries of its 
situation, without imparting the ability to obtain re- 
lief. We must begin at the foundation if we would 
elevate the superstructure. We must make capable 
voters if we would have able representatives. We 
must be respectable at home if we would command 
respect abroad. And we must be powerful in intel- 
lect if we would prevail in counsel. 



390 TUPELO. 

" We have thus opened up a subject which we ex- 
pect to present in some form or other in every fol- 
lowing number of this periodical. Its intrinsic 
merits arc sufficient to entitle it to all the considera- 
tion we are able to bestow upon it. But we 
adduce directly the plain, practical reason that ad- 
dresses every southern man's and every national 
patriot's heart — the equalization of the different 
parts of the Union for the integrity and well- 
being of the whole — that we may secure attention to 
the subject. We enter a field of discussion to which 
we see no well-defined limits. The race of man is 
nearly six thousand years old, and yet the question, 
What is education proper? has never been settled. 
Perhaps it cannot be arbitrarily determined, but as 
an appliance it must be modified and adapted to the 
various characters and conditions of men. But be 
that as it may be, it is with us an open question. 
AVhat is education proper for us? By what scheme 
shall we enlist the teaching talent and subject to 
discipline the teachable mind of the South? To 
this investigation we hope to call forth many a com- 
petent assistant. We hope to see it occupy a prom- 
inent place in the newspapers of the state, and to be- 
come a common theme for discussion by candidates 
lie fore the people. By so doing we hope to prepare 
the way for our next legislature to take hold of the 
subject of popular instruction and turn to good ac- 
count the vast resources at our command for support- 
ing a system of schools that may embrace all classes 



TUPELO. 391 

and conditions of society. We have the materials 
and means for rearing up the most cultivated, accom- 
plished, refined, polished, and powerful population 
on earth, for we have a strictly laboring class in the 
producing and sustaining avocations of life. We 
could have a most capable operative and managing 
class, and then a class exempt from manual labor, 
which by proper mental culture and application 
would become the glory and defence of the South, 
and command the respect and admiration of the world. 
Let there be light." 

The wealthy class in the South were not possessed 
of a high degree of culture. They were much in- 
ferior to the educated class in the Xorth. They re- 
ceived their education in northern colleges and 
seminaries, or of teachers of northern birth and 
education who had gone south to pursue their voca- 
tion. Spending life in a ceaseless round of hilarious 
■social enjoyments and pleasures, and often in dissi- 
pation and vicious associations, was not conducive of 
a hijdi decree of mental culture. It was a lady of 
wealth and high social position who informed me 
that she very much feared that there would soon be a 
resurrection of the negroes. It was a company of 
aristocratic slave-holders who, upon organizing them- 
selves into the Silver Gray Home Guards, in .Ian.. 
1SG1, adopted this as one of the articles of their con- 
stitution: "Section 2, Art. 3. We will not leave the 
state of Mississippi unless it be invaded." It was a 
physician of high standing who informed me that 



392 TUPELO 

Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson had been killed in the 
battle of Shiloh. He averred that the femoral artery 
had been severed below the knee and that this caused 
hemorrhage which resulted in death. 

Servile insurrections were constantly feared, es- 
pecially by the female portion of the population. I 
lodged a few days at the house of Dr. Dunlap, 
near Holly Springs. Mrs. Dunlap informed me 
that she noticed a large gathering of their colored 
people at one of the cabins. Wishing to learn the 
cause, she slipped round to the back window unob- 
served, as the night was dark, to play the role of an 
eavesdropper. A well-dressed burly African, in an 
earnest tone, was haranguing them after this manner : 
" I tells you, ladies an' gentlemen, we's all gwine to 
be free before long. We's all going to enjoy liberty, 
mos' right away. We won't be slaves no longer an' 
be whipped an' cuffed by de white folks." " How 
duz you know all dat?" said White Jim, an octo-' 
roon. " Why didn't I hear massa Jeff Davis say 
so. I done drove him out in de carriage to dat 
stan' where he 'dressed de people to-day, an' I hed 
to wait to bring him back. From what he said de 
people of de Norf is comin' down to set us free an' 
dey'll jes mow dese southern people down as dey 
mows de grass. An' he said de northern people be- 
lieved in negro 'quality, dat de white folks up dar 
wuz willing to marry our daughters an' let us marry 
theirn. Jes be ready, as the hiine sez, your redemp- 
tion draweth nigh." The doctor, as soon as I in- 



TUPELO. 393 

formed him of what was going on, went out with a 
whip and drove off this orator whose incendiary speech 
had a tendency to incite servile insurrection. He 
ought to have tied him up and given him five hundred 
lashes." 

In 1856 one slave murdered another. Judge 
Seroggs, of Holly Springs, inserted a card in the pa- 
pers asking for information, as he could not find any 
law to meet the case. Afterward he published a 
card, stating that as there was no law to punish one 
slave for the murder of another, he had ordered that 
the culprit receive three hundred lashes, and had 
sent him home to his master. A physician in Lex- 
ington, Ky., forcibly violated the person of a female 
patient — an octoroon. A moot court was held by the 
young lawyers of the city, who tried the physician, 
and the jury impaneled for the occasion condemned 
him to pay for the oysters. This woman was mar- 
ried, and suffered severe mental anguish because of 
the crime committed against her virtue, but she could 
obtain no redress. A planter living in Fayette 
county, Ky., murdered his wife because she truth- 
fully accused him of infidelity to his marriage vows. 
The murder was witnessed by forty of his slaves, two of 
whom were severely wounded trying to save the life 
of their mistress. The murderer was arrested, tried, 
and acquitted for lack of testimony, slaves being in- 
competent by southern law to give testimony in a 
court of justice. But retributive justice overtook 
this man a few months after hisacquittal. lie died at 
the hands of his brother-in-law. 



394 TUPELO. 

In the Mississippi bottoms and in mountainous 
districts, in the everglades of Florida and places not 
easily accessible, large numbers of maroons make 
their homes. Here they live in comparative security 
and raise families. The maroons prefer death to 
slavery. They have bludgeons with sharp knife 
blades deftly inserted in the heavy end of them, and 
woe to the hound that comes within their reach. 
Those who live upon the mountains are properly 
called cimaroons. They are very adroit in evading 
capture, and should they be captured they will in- 
duce other slaves to escape with them and become 
cliff-dwellers and troglodytes amid the fastnesses of 
the mountains, or they will make their home on some 
hummock near a lagoon, whose shores are embowered 
by the evergreen cypress, the long-leafed pine, the 
trailing vine, and the pendent moss. By the aid of 
the friendly lagoon or bayou they can evade the 
sleuth-hound, and the fish which abound are readily 
taken in their skillfully woven nets. By the aid of 
traps they feast upon wild turkeys, opossums, wild 
pigeons, and every variety of game. Without the 
aid of guns the wild deer becomes a victim of their 
skillfully constructed snares. From a noxious plant 
indigenous to southern swamps, they manufacture a 
subtle poison in which they saturate meat and place 
it near the kennels of hounds. The poison is nearly 
inodorous and insipid. It is sure death to all ani- 
mals born blind. The maroons call it " stagger 
pizen," because the poisoned animal staggers as if in- 



tupei.o. 395 

toxicated till almost the last moment of its existence. 
When pursued by hounds, pieces of meat saturated 
with this poisonous decoction are thrown on his track 
by the fugitive as he flies; the hounds devour it with 
avidity. It is a very active poison. Its fatal effects 
are speedily developed, and as there is no known anti- 
dote the hounds soon die in convulsive agony. Thus 
many a poor hunted fugitive has been saved from a 
cruel death, or the infliction of a terrible flagellation 
with the loss of dear but precarious liberty, at appar- 
ently the last moment, even when the hounds were 
within a mile of their victim. Thus proving the 
truth of the adage, " Man's extremity is God's oppor- 
tunity." 

St. Louis, Mo. 

THE SOUTHERN BARBECUE. 

Twenty-four hours before the feast is to be served 
the preparations are under way. Seventy-two South- 
down sheep have been slaughtered and suspended 
in undivided carcasses. Twenty-live shoats bear the 
mutton company. "While the butchers are doing their 
work, a gang of darkeys, whose shovels fly as if it 
was a labor of love, have excavated three trenches, 
sixty feet long, three and a half feet wide, and four 
feet deep. They are side by side, clean cut through 
sod and clay, and if a surveyor had gone over them 
he could not have found fault with the symmetry. 
Then the wood is hauled. It is only tha bes< seasoned 
hickory which goes into the pits, and cord alter cord 



396 TUPELO. 

is piled in, until there is an amount which would 
stock a wood yard in a northern city. Stick after 
stick is laid on until the wood rises above the surface. 
Coal oil is brought and poured on the wood. Then 
fire is applied in a dozen places and the contents of 
the trenches blaze from end to end. From midnight 
till daylight the smoke and flames and the trenches 
are not approachable. It is Gehenna in miniature. 
At five o'clock the contents have settled down to a 
bed of coals a foot thick, from which arises a fervent 
heat. In the waiting hours the spits, long, smooth- 
shaven poles of hickory, have been made ready, and 
in pairs have been run through the carcasses length- 
wise. They form stretchers, and as they rest on sup- 
porters the sheep or shoat is stretched out flat. 
Grasping these hickory poles the darkies, one at each 
end, carry the carcasses and lay them over the trenches, 
the spits holding them in position. Over the intense 
heat, the surface flesh begins to sputter and fly, and 
then ensues a lively scene. To prevent scorching the 
carcasses have to be turned over every ten minutes, 
and the attendants fairly rushed along the sides of 
the trenches grasping and flopping over the roasting 
pork and mutton. At one end of the pits is a great 
cauldron, where the seasoning, salt and pepper and 
other condiments, is mixed in water and boiled. This 
compound is dipped out in buckets, and men go from 
carcass to carcass with great swabbing cloths tied on 
sticks. In this way they apply the seasoning. As 
the embers drop lower the heat becomes less intense, 



tupei.o. 397 

and the barbecuing goes on more soberly. Occasionally 
a little water is thrown on the coals, and steam relieves 
the cooking of too much dryness, but the basting goes 
on unceasingly. In ordinary times Uncle Jake Hos- 
tetter may be an humble citizen in Lexington. Now, 
as master of the barbecuing, he rules supreme in the 
cooking lot, for the trenches are enclosed by a tight 
board fence, and it requires some persuasion to get 
past the guards. There are only a few favored per- 
sons within. The thousands who sniff the odors, and 
look longingly toward the incense arising from the 
fires, are wandering through the park wondering when 
dinner will be ready. The master of the barbecue 
moves among the trenches and his word is law. He 
served his apprenticeship away back when presidents 
came to these Kentucky festivities. Barbecues have 
not been so frequent of late years. But Uncle Jake 
feels safe in his experience, and he shows no uneasi- 
ness over the fact that 5,000 people are holding him 
responsible for their dinners, and some of them have 
gone breakfastless to stimulate appetite. Now and 
then two of the cooking corps bring up from the 
trenches to the table under the big tree a carcass to 
inspect. He cuts into it, slices off bits of the flesh, 
tastes, and looks knowing. Even the president of the 
day, Hon. W. C. P. Breckenridge, recognizes the 
authority. The speaking has commenced from a 
stand in the park, and somebody wants to know when 
the orators are going to stop for dinner. " Just when 
Uncle Jake Hostetter says the mutton is done to a 



398 TUPELO. 

turn/' replies Mr. Breckenridge, and another states- 
man is let loose to say a great many pretty compli- 
ments about Kentucky, and a very few words about 
national polities. 

The Blue Grass country has contributed to this 
occasion three great caldrons. Whatever useful pur- 
pose they may have subserved about hog killing time, 
they are now doing duty in the manufacture of 900 
gallons of burgoo. Burgoo has a basis, as the 
chemist says. The basis on this occasion consists of 
150 chickens and 225 pounds of beef in joints, and 
other forms best suited for soup. To this has been 
added a bushel or two of tomatoes. The heap Csf 
shaven roasting ears tells of another accessory before 
the fact. Cabbage and potatoes and probably other 
things in small quantities, but too numerous to men- 
tion, have gone into the pots. The fires were lighted 
under the vats before the roasting commenced on the 
trenches, and the burgoo has been steadily boiling 
ever since. This boiling necessitates steady stirring, 
and next to Uncle Jake's ministerial powers the old 
expert who presides over each kettle comes in for due 
respect and glorification. " You might not think it," 
says the old grey-headed Kentuckian whose eye is 
on the largest of the pots where 500 gallons of bur- 
goo are bubbling, "but a piece of mutton suet as 
large as my hand thrown into the pot would spoil 
the whole mess. That shows you that there are 
somethings you can't put in burgoo. Sometimes out 
in the woods we put in squirrels and turkeys, but we 



TUPELO. 399 

didn't have any this time. I think they've got a 
leetle too much pepper in that pot down there, so if 
you don't find what you get is just right come to me 
and I'll fix you up with some of this." As the meat 
boils from the bones the latter are raised from the 
bottom of the kettle by the paddle and thrown out. 
Gradually vegetables lose all distinctive form and 
appearance, and the compound is reduced to a homo- 
geneous liquid, about the consistency of molasses. 
"Burgoo ought to boil about 14 hours," says the old 
expert, "we've only had about 8 for this, but I think 
they'll be able to eat it." 

Gradually the heap of barbecued meat accumulates 
before Uncle Jake. He goes over and looks at the 
burgoo, and consults with the old expert. Then he 
glances over the fence at the long tables, and finds 
that tw T o wagon loads of bread have been hewn into 
rations and strewn along the pine boards. The 
tincujis, 3,000 of them, are hurriedly scattered with 
the bread. From all parts of the grounds there is a 
sudden but decorous movement toward the tables, 
and the orator on tap runs off a peroration and stops. 
Uncle Jake's corps of assistants bring out the carcasses 
still on the stretchers, and every rod of table length 
finds a smoking sheep and a shoat. Gus Jaubcrt and 
a dozen butchers, with their long, sharp knives, shave 
and cut and deal out with all the speed that long 
practice has given them. The burgoo, steaming hot 
in new wooden buckets, is brought in, and as the 
attendants pass along the lines the hungry people dip 



400 TIJPELO. 

out cupfuls and sip it as it cools. There are no knives 
nor forks. Nobody asks for or expects them. 
Neither are there spoons for the burgoo. The great 
slices of bread serve as plates for the meat. There 
are 5,000 people eating together, and all busy at once. 
Not a basket has been brought. All types and classes 
of Blue Grass people are facing those tables, and 
handling their bread and meat and burgoo with mani- 
festations of appetite which tell of the relish of the 
fare. Finally, nothing but skeletons remain of the 
sheep and shoats, and the tables are swept. Uncle 
Jake moves among the throng, and men like Senator 
Beck and Gov. Blackburn and Gen. ¥ra. Preston 
shake his hand, and tell him he has eclipsed his 
former efforts. It is the proud happy hour of Uncle 
Jacob's life. He is the hero of the hour. Don 
Piatt and several other reporters were present taking 
notes of this wonderful institution, the southern bar- 
becue, and graphic reports find their way to the 
northern papers. The southerner, notably the Ken- 
tuckian, regards the man's life a failure who has not 
attended a barbecue. 

Winchester, Clark Co., Ky. 

I preached the following sermon just before my 
successful attempt to escape from prison. I supposed 
that it would probably be the last sermon I should 
ever preach on earth, as the chances for escape seemed 
very slender : 



TUPELO. 401 

THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

The text -was 2 Cor. v. 10: "We must all appear 
before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one 
may receive the things clone in his body, according 
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 

The doctrine of a general judgment was revealed 
to mankind at a very early period of the world's 
history. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophe- 
sied, saying, "Behold the Lord cometh with ten 
thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, 
and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all 
the ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, 
and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners 
have spoken against him." Job declares: "I know 
that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at 
the latter day upon the earth." Daniel also speaks 
of a general judgment: "I beheld till the thrones 
were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit,, 
whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of 
his head like the pure wool; his throne was like 
the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A 
fiery stream issued and came forth from before him ; 
thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand stood before him : the 
judgment was set, and the books were opened." 
The New Testament is also explicit in its declara- 
tions that God hath appointed a day in which he will 
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom 
he hath ordained. The text declares that we must 
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. 
26 



402 TUPELO. 

The scenes which will usher in the judgment of 
the great day will be of the most magnificent character. 
"The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the 
earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be 
burned up." This does not indicate annihilation. 
God will never annihilate any of his creatures, ani- 
mate or inanimate. 

The inquiry is often made, what becomes of the 
soul after death, and where does it await the general 
judgment? A sect called the Soul-sleepers take the 
position that the soul, after death, goes into a torpid 
state, like bears in winter, and thus remains till the 
sounding of the Archangel's trump. There is no 
scripture to sustain this view, and it is only assumed, 
to avoid the objection that God would not judge a 
soul, and send it to reward or punishment, and then 
bring it back, to be again judged. That the soul, at 
death, passes immediately into glory or torment, is 
proved by many scriptures. Paul "desired to de- 
part, and be with Christ, which was far better," than 
remaining on earth. He declares that to be present 
with the body, is to be absent from the Lord. The 
dying Stephen calls upon the Lord Jesus to receive 
his spirit. These holy men would not thus have 
spoken, if they supposed that ages must elapse ere 
they entered heaven. God is not the God of the dead 
or torpid, but of the living. Moses and Elias ap- 
peared on the mount of transfiguration in a state far 
from torpidity. The dying thief received the prom- 



TUPELO. 403 

ise, " This day shalt thou be with mc in paradise." 
No mention is made of purgatory or torpidity. The 
objector urges that paradise is not heaven. "\Yo are 
told that the river of life flows from the throne of 
God, that the tree of life grows on both sides of the 
river, and that the tree of life grows in the midst of 
the paradise of God. The paradise of God is where 
he is seated on his throne, which is heaven. Para- 
dise is where Christ is. The thief would be with 
Christ in paradise. He who regards the Lord Jesus 
as the Chief among ten thousand, the One altogether 
lovely, will deem his presence heaven indeed. As 
to the wicked, it is said of the rich man, that in hell 
he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. If, after 
being judged, the souls of believers do pass immedi- 
ately into glory, and the wicked into torment, what 
use is there of another or general judgment. I reply, 
we are responsible not only for our acts, but for the 
influence which those acts* exert through all time. 
Gibbon, Hume, Rousseau, Paine, and other infidel 
writers wrote works which, during the life of the 
authors, did great evil. If those wicked men passed 
*' away from earth impenitent, they are now suffering 
the vengeance of eternal fire. But the influence for 
evil of those wicked works did not cease with the 
death of their authors. Thousands of young men 
every year are led into pernicious and hurtful errors 
by their perusal. At the general judgment the ac- 
cumulated guilt for the baleful influence exerted 
through their writings in all time will sink them 



404 TUPELO 

deeper in the flames of perdition. The sainted Alex- 
ander and other pious men who are now in heaven 
wrote many works whose influence for good was 
great while their authors lived, and since their death 
they are, aud will continue to be, instrumental in the 
hand of God in turning many to righteousness. All 
the good accomplished by their writings through all 
time, will, at the judgment, add to their exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory. 

In this life, we often see the righteous man con- 
tending with life's unnumbered woes ; all the dealings 
of Providence seem to be adverse. While the wicked 
are in great power they flourish in life like the green 
bay-tree, and have no bands in their death. These 
things are strange and mysterious. We understand 
them not now, but w r e shall learn in that great day 
when all mysteries are made plain that God's dealings 
were just, both with the righteous and the wicked. 

The text declares that we must all appear before 
the judgment seat of Christ. This we includes all 
who are now within the sound of my voice, and not 
only us, but all who live upon the face of the earth; 
and the Archangel's trump will wake the pale nations 
of the dead and summon them to judgment. The 
dark domain of hell will be vacated, and the angels 
that kept not their first estate and are now reserved 
in chains of darkness Mill appear in the presence of 
the Judge. Heaven's holy inhabitants will be present. 
Thus heaven, earth, and hell will be represented in 
that august assemblage. This scene will bear some 



TUPELO. t05 

resemblance to that which takes place in our earthly 
courts. The Lord Jesus Christ will be the Judere, 
and the angels and saints will be the jurors, who will 
consent to and approve of the acts of the Judge. 
The angels will be the officers who will summon from 
the prison-house of hell the devils to the trial, and 
also those wicked men who will call upon the rocks 
and mountains to fall upon them to hide them from 
the face of the Lamb. Nor, as is so often the case 
with earthly officers, will any be able to elude the 
vigilance of these. They will be clothed with ample 
power to compel the attendance of all; none will 
escape. We must all appear before the judgment 
seat. As in earthly courts, law is the basis of judg- 
ment, so we shall be judged according to law in that 
day. The heathen will be judged by the law of na- 
ture — the law written in their hearts and on their 
consciences. The light of nature teaches the being, 
wisdom, power, and goodness of God. For a viola- 
tion of this law they will be beaten with few stripes. 
The Jews will be judged by both the law of nature, 
which they have in common with the heathen, and 
the Mosaic law. But we who live in the nineteenth 
century, in the full blaze of gospel light, will be 
judged not only by the light of nature and the Mo- 
saic law, which w'e possess in common with the 
heathen and the Jew, but also by the glorious gospel 
of the Son of God, which brought life and immor- 
tality to light; and if condemned, how fearful our 
doom, who are so highly favored ! In earthly courts, 



406 TUPELO. 

we are judged for our overt acts alone, but in the 
court of heaven the commandment is exceeding broad ; 
it reaches every thought. Our words, too, are taken 
into account. We must give an account for every 
idle word. By our words we shall be justified, and 
by our words we shall be condemned. Our thoughts, 
our words, our deeds will all be taken into account. 

As in our courts there are witnesses, so also there 
will be at the bar of God. Our pious relatives and 
friends will bear this testimony, that they have prayed 
with us and for us ; that they had a deep concern for 
our souls, and that Ave who are found on the left hand 
of the Judge, refused all their counsel, and despised 
their admonitions. Ministers of the gospel will 
testify that they came as ambassadors from the King 
of kings, and beseeching you, in Christ's stead, to be 
reconciled to God, pointing to the coming wrath, and 
warning you from that wrath to flee; and yet their 
labor of love ye despised, and scorned the message 
from on high. The Bible will be a witness against 
you. Its teachings are able to make wise unto salva- 
tion. It is the chart which is given to guide us 
through this wilderness-world, to fairer worlds on 
high. It tells of the Lamb of God, who taketh 
away the sin of the world. It is truth without any 
mixture of error, and yet you have despised this 
necessary revelation, and chosen to perish, with the 
Word of Life open before you. God, the Father, 
will be a swift witness against you. In the greatness 
of His love for you, in the counsels of eternity, He 



TUPELO. 407 

devised the plan of salvation, and sent His only be- 
gotten Son to suffer and die, that you might live, and 
yet you have despised that love, and rejected that 
Saviour. God, the Son, will bear this testimony, 
that He came from the shining abodes of glory, 
where seraphim and cherubim fell prostrate at His 
feet, in humble adoration, and emptying Himself of 
His glory, bore all the ills of life — the persecutions 
of wicked men, and the accursed death of the cross, 
that salvation might be yours, and yet ye refused it, 
and trod the blood of the Son of God under foot, and 
put Him to an open shame. The Holy Spirit, the 
Third Person of the adorable Trinity, will boar wit- 
ness that He often knocked at the door of your hearts 
for admittance; that He wooed you to embrace His 
love, offering to abide with you forever, and yet you 
rejected the offer, and did despite to the Spirit of 
Grace, till, in sorr6w, He took His everlasting flight. 
The devil is now going about as a roaring lion, 
seeking whom he may devour. And sometimes trans- 
forming himself into an angel of light, he is tempt- 
ing you to sin, by presenting before your minds the 
superior charms of the riches and pleasures of earth, 
to things that are unseen and eternal. He has no 
power to compel you to sin. His evil suggestions 
are whispered in your oft too willing ears, and then 
it remains with you to accept or reject. He has no 
power of compulsion. Your sin must be an act of 
your own will, or it is not sin. When you consent 
to the wiles of this arch enemy, and sin against God, 



408 TUPELO. 

remember that with eager desire and base ingratitude 
he will fiercely accuse in the great day of God 
Almighty, and urge these very sins of his suggestion 
as a reason that he should have you to torment you 
forever in the bottomless pit. 

That internal monitor, that light which enlightens 
( every man that cometh into the world — the moral 
sense, or conscience — will be a swift witness against 
you. By it you have been enlightened and warned ; 
and in the case of many who have denied a future 
state of punishment, the goadings of remorse have 
convinced them that there is a hell, the kindlings of 
whose fires they have felt in their own bosoms. 
Conscience will compel you to confess that your doom 
is just, though forever debarred from the joys and 
happiness of heaven. O ! my fellow-prisoners and 
travelers to the bar of God, listen to her warning 
voice to-day, before it be too late, and you are com- 
pelled mournfully to exclaim, " The harvest is past, 
the summer is ended, and I am not saved!" The 
conscience of the sinner will be compelled to admit 
the truth of the testimony. In earthly courts, often- 
times witnesses are suborned, and their testimony 
false. Not so at the grand assize. Not a scrap of 
false testimony will be admitted. The evidence will 
be in truth, and the judgment in righteousness. 

After all these scenes have occurred, the Judge will 
render a verdict, and pronounce the sentence, which 
will be irreversible and eternal. With regard to the 
righteous, though they have been guilty of many sins, 



TUPELO. 409 

both of omission and commission, and have no merits 
of their own to plead, and consider themselves justly 
obnoxious to eternal banishment, their Advocate, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, in whom, while in the flesh, they 
exercised a true and living faith, will now present 
them, clad in the white robes of His perfect righteous- 
ness, faultless before His Father, and they will now 
.hear the welcome plaudit, "Come, ye blessed, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world." But those on the left hand, who all 
their life rejected the mercy offered — the great salva- 
tion proffered without money and without price — 
will now hear the dread sentence, "Depart, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels ! " 

O my dear, impenitent fellow-prisoners ! how can 
ye take up your abode, your eternal abode, in ever- 
lasting burnings? How can ye dwell with devour- 
ing fire? How can ye endure everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His 
power, shut up forever in the fearful pit out of which 
there is no egress except for the vision of the damned, 
and the smoke of its torment? Be wise to-day, 'tis 
madness to defer. Procrastination is the thief of 
time. Delay is fraught with awful danger. Trust 
not in promises of future amendment. The way to 
hell is paved with good resolutions, which are never 
kept. The future convenient season never arrives. 
Like Felix, we may tremble when the minister reasons 
<)f a judgment to come; and like Agrippa, we may 



410 TUPELO. 

be almost persuaded to be Christians, and yet come 
short of the glory of God through procrastination. 
Procrastination has populated hell. All the doomed 
and damned from Christian lands are victims of this 
pernicious and destructive wile of the devil. It is 
foolish to procrastinate. Though the Bible teems 
with rich and glorious promises of a hundred-fold 
blessings in this life, and eternal glory in the world 
to come, to those who break off their sins by right- 
eousness, and their transgressions by turning unto 
the Lord, yet all these promises are limited to the 
present tense. There is not a single blessing prom- 
ised the future penitent. He procrastinates at the 
risk of losing all. Behold, now is the accepted time, 
and now is the day of salvation. To-day if ye will 
hear his voice, harden not your hearts. " Ho, every 
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that 
hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy 
wine and milk without money and without price." 
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness." "And the Spirit and the Bride say, come; 
let him that heareth say, come; and let him that is 
athirst, come; and whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." 

Choose ye this clay whom ye will serve. There is 
no warrant for dcferrino: till to-morrow the moment- 
ous and eternal interests of the immortal soul. The 
shortness and uncertainty of life furnish a strong 
reason that we should not procrastinate. In the 
Bible, life is compared to everything that is swift, 



TUPELO. 41 1 

transient, and fleeting in its nature. It is compared 
to the swoop of the eagle hastening to the prey ; to 
the swift post, to the bubble on the river. Life is 
compared in its duration to a year, a day, and to 
nothing, yea, less than nothing, and vanity. All 
these comparisons indicate that it is very brief and 
evanescent. We have no lease of life; we hold it by 
a very slight tenure; and this is especially true of us 
in our present condition. Confined in prison, some 
of us led to death every day without a moment's 
warning, every evening I address some who, before 
the next evening, are in eternity. Myself in chains, 
my life declared forfeited, ought we not all to be 
deeply impressed with the necessity of immediate 
preparation to meet our God? I feel that I am 
preaching as a dying man to dying men, and I be- 
seech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 
Believe iu the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be 
saved. Trust in Him for salvation, for He is faith- 
ful who has promised. God has never said to any 
seek ye my face in vain. By the love and mercy of 
God, by the terrors of the judgment, by the sympathy 
and compassion of Jesus, I entreat you, my fellow- 
prisoners, to seek an interest, a present interest, in 
the great salvation ! 

I close for the present. We shall never all engage 
in divine service together again on earth. We sepa- 
rate — some to go to a distant prison, and some to 
death. May God grant that when we are done with 
< art hly scenes, we may all meet in the realms of bliss, 



412 TUPELO. 

where there is in God's presence fulness of joy, and 
at his right hand pleasures forevermore ! And may 
the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, rest and 
abide with us, and all the Israel of God, now, hence- 
forth, and forever, Amen ! 

The following hymn was then sung : 

In the sun, and moon, and stars, 

Signs and wonders there shall be; 
Earth shall quake with inward wars, 

Nations with perplexity. 

Soon shall ocean's hoary deep, 

Tossed with stronger tempests, rise; 

"Wilder storms the mountains sweep, 
Louder thunders rock the skies. 

Dread alarms shall shake the proud, 

Pale amazement, restless fear; 
And, amid the thunder-cloud, 

Shall the Judge of men appear. 

But though from his awful face, 

Heaven shall fade, and earth shall fly. 

Fear not ye, his chosen race, 
Your redemption draweth nigh. 

I preached longer than I had intended, having 
become so fully engrossed with the subject as to for- 
get my chains and my frustrated plans. My fellow- 
prisoners were listening apparently with interest; 
great solemnity prevailed, and penitential tears 
were flowing. It was evident that the Spirit of the 
living God was in our midst; and though danger 
and death were before our eyes, the consolations of 



TUPELO. 413 

the glorious gospel of the blessed God caused our peace 
to flow like a river. The precious seed was sown 
in tears. May we not entertain a good hope that he 
who cast the seed into this soil, prepared by affliction, 
shall come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
with him. 

DIES IRJE. 

Day of wrath! that awful day 
Shall the world in ashes lay, 
Sacred seers and heathen say. 

What a trembling there will be 
When the Judge on earth they see 
Making strictest scrutiny. 

Trumpet sending awful sound, 
Through the tombs beneath the ground 
Summons all the throne around. 

Death and nature stand in dread 
When arise the millions dead 
At the Judge's bar to plead. 

In the record shall be sought 
Every deed, and word, and thought, 
And a world to judgment brought. 

When the Judge sits shall be seen 
All the hidden deeds of men — 
Naught shall go unpunished then. 

What shall wretched I then say, 
Whom secure to help my plea, 
When the just scarce saved be? 

King of Majesty severe, 

Who Thine own dost freely clear, 

Save me, Fount of Pity, spare ! 



414 TUPELO. 

Think, Lord ! 'twas for me astray 
Thou didst tread life's weary way. 
Let me not be lost that day. 

Sitting tired Thou still hast sought, 
On the cross my pardon bought; 
Shall such labor be for naught? 

Judge of vengeance, just the fount, 

remit the great amount 
Ere the day of strict account. 

1 accept the sinner's place, 
Guilty shame o'erspreads my face; 
Give, Lord, to the suppliant, grace. 

Thou Who Mary hast forgiven, 
To the robber openedst heaven, 
Even hope to me hast given. 

Though I pray unworthily, 
Set, I pray Thee graciously, 
Me from lire eternal free. 

With the sheep a place I pray, 
Keep me from the goats away, 
At Thine own right hand to stay. 

When the cursed, their shame confessing, 
Eager flames are sore distressing, 
Come to me then with a blessing. 

Pray I suppliant and prone, 
Heart abashed as ashes grown, 
Leave me not at last alone. 

On that day of fad surprise, 
When from ashes shall arise 
Guilty man to judgment come, 
Keep me from the dreadful doom. 

Thomas Celano. 



TUPELO. 415 



AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT NOW STANDS REVEALED 
TO TllE WORLD. 

(From Good Wards, edited by Norman McLeod, D.D., and published in 
Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland.] 

Whatever may be yet the issue of the American 
conflict, it will have done two great things, — it will 
have cast a flood of light upon the condition of the 
American slaves, — it will have given freedom to great 
masses of them, if not to all. 

Until the secession war broke out, the means of 
accurately ascertaining the positive conditions of the 
slave in the United States were scanty, and to a great 
extent doubtful. On the one hand, we had the rep- 
resentations of masters and of their friends. These 
were always likely to be warped by self-interest; 
even when most sincerely meant, to exhibit but a 
portion of the truth. In all countries the best em- 
ployers are the most accessible, the most willing to 
come forward in testimony of the condition of the 
employed ; yet none are generally more ignorant of 
the worst practices used in their trade. How much 
more must this be the case in the slave system, 
where every possible malpractice in the employment 
of labor must be intensified a hundredfold, by the 
practically absolute powers of the master, and by the 
darkness with which he has the right to surround 
his proceedings. Here evidently those who come 
into the light of publicity will be those (inly who 



416 TUPELO. 

have no cause, or think they have no cause, to fear • 
it ; and who, living in comparative light themselves, 
have no idea of what may be passing in the dens of 
darkness around them. The tendency of slave-own- 
ing is, moreover, emphatically one of insulation. 
The best of slave-owners as well as the worst would 
fain have never a neighbor, since all intercourse with 
other plantations tends to undermine either the slave- 
owner's moral or his physical authority. 

Now slavery has come to be seen at once in all its 
breadth and in all its detail. Where formerly it 
could only be outlined or lightly sketched from a few 
points of view, it may now be photographed in its 
minutest features, and from every point. The mass 
of testimony is overwhelming, and may be checked 
and counterchecked from white to black and from 
black to white to any extent. But an ugly picture 
it offers, look at it how and whence you will. For 
the result of all this mass of new evidence is simply 
this, — that the worst that has been hitherto said by 
isolated voices against American slavery, has been 
abundantly confirmed ; that the distant picture of it 
has turned out faint and pale beside the reality ; that 
contact with the "patriarchal institution," so far 
from converting one sincere abolitionist from the 
errors of his ways, or confounding one dishonest one, 
has turned into ardent abolitionists, hundreds and 
thousands of men who, when they first went down 
South, were avowedly strong pro-slavery men. 

The legal elements of the slave's condition have 



TUPELO. 417 

long since been known. They are all mainly 
summed up in this : He is not a person, but a.thing ; 
at least as towards his master, he or she has no signal 
honor, no family ties. There is no punishment un- 
der any of the southern slave-codes for the worst out- 
rage by a master on a slave woman's virtue, on a 
slave man's marriage-tie ; no legal limit to the uses 
to which he may put either. The slave has no 
rights of property; is legally forbidden to develop 
his intellect by education. 

Instead of saying, Because slaves are property they 
will be well treated, the true reasoning is, Because 
slaves are property, therefore they will be ill-treated, 
therefore they will surely call forth against them in 
many an instance every latent capacity of absolute 
devilhood which lies in the master's bosom. 

Are you sorry that this should be so ? God forbid. 
As is the tree, so is its fruit. Thank God that men 
do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ! 
else would they allow the whole world to be over- 
spread of them. Let the thorn tear, let the thistle 
prick, that man may know that they are there simply 
to be fought with and rooted out. 

Now the worst side of slavery is no doubt the 
moral side of it. Though it had no evil physical 
side to it, it would yet be abominable. Though ev- 
ery slave had plenty to eat, plenty to drink, good 
shelter, good clothing, moderate work, skillful care 
in sickness, it is yet hideous that a man should not 
be a man, a husband not a husband, a father not a 
27 



418 TUPELO. 

father. But the war has shown that the physical 
maltreatment of slaves Mas anything but a rare 
exception. 

An officer, writing from Louisiana to the Boston 
Transcript, stated that not one recruit "in fifteen is 
free from marks of severe lashing/' and that " more 
than one-half * * are rejected" (the rejections 
being themselves more than half of the number that 
offer) "because of disability, arising from lashing of 
whips, and biting of dogs on their calves and 
thighs;" whilst Mr. Wesley Richards, a surgeon, 
writing May 25, 1863, to the Cincinnati Free Nation, 
after examining about 700 recruits, says that "at 
least one-half bore evidence of having been severely 
whipped and maltreated in various ways;" some 
"stabbed with a knife, others shot through the limbs, 
some wounded with clubs until their bones were 
broken," and others had their hamstrings cut to pre- 
vent their running off. And General Saxton, in 
command of the Department of the South (compris- 
ing South Carolina, Georgia, Florida), on being exam- 
ined before the " Freedmen's Inquiry Commission," 
stated that there was scarcely one of the negroes 
whose back was not " covered with scars." East 
and West, it will be seen, the testimony is the same. 

The Rev. William Taylor, in a pamphlet on the 
"Cause and probable results of the Civil War in 
America," relates the following, which has the ad- 
vantage of showing the patriarchal institution under 
its " pious " aspect : 



TUPELO. 419 

"A dear friend of mine, in my native county, in 
the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, was passing the 
house of a neighbor, and saw in the barn-yard, sus- 
pended from a beam * * * a colored woman 
hung up by her hands. She was nearly naked, had 
been whipped until she was unable to moan aloud, 
and had an ear of Indian corn stuck in her mouth 
as a gag. In that condition she was left hanging till 
her master should take his breakfast, and have fam- 
ily prayers. My friend went in to see him, and 
remonstrated in vain to have her taken down, till 
after the family devotions were over. * * * This 
pious (?) family I knew well, and their three children, 
William, Arthur, and Adeline, were taught authority 
between the ages \>f five and ten years by being set to 
whip the said poor woman at will, and she was beaten 
and scarred up so as to present a most unnatural and 
hideous appearance." 

But these are only the milder mercies of the east- 
ern seaboard. We must go to the dreaded Southwest 
to find the lashings carried to the pitch of disabling 
the sufferer — the stabbings, shootings, poundings of 
limbs with clubs, cuttings of hamstrings, of which 
the surgeons speak. Yet the surgeons had nothing 
l<> say but to men, and those living ones. In God's 
avenging hosts, which we see not, there may be other 
and more helpless recruits. The Rev. Mr. Aughey, 
who was a minister in Mississippi at the outbreak of 
secession, in a work called the "Iron Furnace," tells 
of. some of these. "Mr. Pipkin, who resided near 



420 TUPELO. 

Holly Springs (Mississippi), had a negro woman 
whipped to death while I was at his house during a 
Session of Presbytery. Mr. Cole, of Water ford, 
Mississippi, had a woman whipped to death by his 
overseer. But such cruel scourgings are of daily 
occurrence. * * * Mrs. Frederick recently 
whipped a boy to death within a half a mile of my 
residence. Old Mr. Cole, of Waterford, Mississippi," 
(apparently the same patriarch as befoi'e referred to) 
"punished his negroes by slitting the soles of their feet 
with his bowie-knife. One man he put into a cotton- 
press, and turned the screw until life was extinct. 
He stated that he only intended to alarm the man, but 
carried the joke too far." Of course the laws which 
exist in every state against the murder or torturing of 
slaves are about as well observed as might be laws 
enacted by wolves against sheep-murder, and pro- 
viding that between wolf and sheep no sheep could 
be witness. Sometimes, indeed, in this black South- 
west, some peculiarly atrocious excess of patriarchal- 
ism raises the horror even of the white crowd, and 
the oifender is lynched or his or her home burnt 
down. But in no single one of the instances above 
quoted do we find that any punishment was inflicted. 
When Mrs. Frederick, of Mississippi, whipped her 
slave boy to death, the coroner's jury returned a ver- 
dict of death by cruelty ; but Mr. Aughey expressly 
states that "nothing more was done." 

In the real South the lash is evidently a regular daily 
element of the institution. " I am residing," writes Mr. 



TUPELO. 4 '21 

Aughey, " on the banks of the Yockanookany . * 
In this vicinity there are large plantations, cultivated 
bv hundreds of negroes. * * * Every night the 
negroes are brought to a judgment-seat. The over- 
seer presides. If they have not labored to suit him, 
or if their task is unfulfilled, they are chained to a 
post and severely whipped." Of these overseers the 
writer has just said: "I never knew a pious over- 
seer — never. * * »* Overseers, as a class, are 
worse than slave-owners themselves. They are cruel, 
brutal, licentious, dissipated, and profane. They 
always carry a loaded whip, a revolver, and a bowie- 
knife." Such are the dispensers of the Southern 
slave-owners' justice. Of course the terror they ex- 
cite is extreme ; and the writer says he has known an 
instance of a woman, through fright, giving birth to 
a child at the whipping-post. It need hardly be said 
that it is at the option of the overseer to strip the 
slaves to any extent. "In Louisiana, women, pre- 
paratory to whipping, are often stripped to a state of 
perfect nudity." Black women only, some aristocrat 
of color may think. "There is a girl," said one Col- 
onel Hanna, a member of Mr. Aughey 's church, to 
the latter, "who does not look very white in the face, 
owing to exposure; but when T strip her to whip her, 
I find that she has a skin as fair as my wife." It is 
thus evidently the habit of these Mississippi patri- 
archs to strip and whip women as white of skin as 
their own wives. And the slaves are so fond of the 
system that "every night," Mr. Aughey tells us, "the 



422 TUPELO. 

Mississippi woods resound with the deep-mouthed 
baying of the blood-hounds." 

Remember always, that, between Virginia, and 
even South Carolina, on the one hand, and the South- 
west on the other, every intermediate stage must be 
supposed to exist. E. g., Mr. Taylor — a Virginian, 
let us recollect, of the Shenandoah Valley, whose 
wife was brought up in Alabama — mentions an in- 
stance in the latter state where a master, riding home 
with a runaway, flogged the latter with a heavy 
whip " till he sunk in his tracks, and died within a 
few hours ;" whereupon all the neighborhood sympa- 
thized deeply with the patriarch who had lost so val- 
uable a man, and deemed the accident "a warning to 
niggers to stay at home and mind their own business." 
" One beautiful Sabbath morning," says Mr. Aughey, 
" I stood on the levee at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and 
counted twenty-seven sugar-houses in full blast. I 
found that the negroes were compelled to labor eigh- 
teen hours per day, and were not permitted to rest 
on the Sabbath during the rolling season. The 
negroes on most plantations have a truck patch, which 
they cultivate on the Sabbath. I have pointed out 
the sin of thus laboring on the Sabbath, but they 
plead necessity ; their children, they state, must suffer 
from hunger if they did not cultivate their truck 
patch, and their masters would not give them time 
on any other day." But even where the work is not 
in itself so severe, it is made oppressive by its con- 
tinuousuess. Thus, in the sea islands, where the 



TUPELO. 423 

hoars of work wore from daylight to five p.m., there 
was no cessation of labor allowed for meals, and the 
slave must eat whatever food he could get without 
leaving off his hoeing or cotton picking. And those 
who are most overworked are of course the weakest — 
those least able to bear it — women and children. 

In passing from the physical to the moral aspects 
of slavery, we are met by the great difficulty that a 
large portion of its daily working consists really of 
things such as should not be named among; Christian 
men. It is difficult for us to realize the fact that 
men and women professing to be Christians should 
allow other men and women around them, whom they 
claim as their own property, to gratify their passions 
like brute beasts, the name of marriage representing 
a mere temporary relation. In the sea islands, Cap- 
tain Hooper bears testimony to the fact that " many of 
the negro men have two or three wives, and children 
by each." The masters, it is distinctly stated, do not 
care whether the slave women are married or not, so 
long as they have children, nor have they, as a matter 
of fact, any scruple in breaking up such unions. The 
wife and children of Solomon Bradley, an "Uncle 
Tom" among the Port Ixoyal negroes, were sold away 
some years ago, and he never expects to meet with 
them again. Between white and colored it is a prin- 
ciple of law throughout the slave states that there can 
be no legal union. But the number of mixed bloods 
shows that the white man's horror of "amalgama- 
tion" only starts into vitality within the church 



424 TUPELO. 

door. On Port Royal island already the "yellow 
niggers " form a considerable part of the population. 
"In almost all the schools/' says Mr. Nordhoff, "you 
find children with blue eyes and light hair — oftencst 
yellow." Yet the description lists found at Hilton 
Head of the slaves shipped thence showed that the 
greater number of these were mixed bloods. Now 
as such shipments are almost universally for the 
dreaded South, it follows that the "patriarchs" and 
their overseers send their own offspring to a harsher 
slavery than that around themselves. And, owing 
partly to these shipments of the mixed breeds, partly 
to the more unbridled licentiousness of the whites 
themselves, it appears beyond a doubt that in the 
South and Southwest the proportion of "white" and 
"yellow niggers" is far higher than in the eastern 
states. Mr. Aughey speaks of preaching "to a large 
congregation of slaves, the third of whom were as 
white as himself," some with red hair and blue eyes. 
We remember that slave in Mississippi whose skin, 
when she was stripped for whipping, was as white as 
that of her master's wife. Mr. De Camp, the surgeon 
above referred to, speaks of having seen standing be- 
fore him three negro recruits, in whom the "the most 
critical examination could not detect the slightest 
trace of negro blood." General MacDow says that 
in the district of Louisiana which he is writing from, 
there are very few slaves of unmixed negro blood. It 
is notorious that many planters have families of white 
and families of colored children, and perhaps give the 



TUPELO. 425 

latter to wait on the former. Remember always that 
the chastity of the slave has no legal protection. I 
cannot here enter into details ; suffice it to say that 
the slave system has ere this enforced incest at the 
will of the master. But, without descending to such 
horrors, let any of my countrywomen picture to her- 
self what must be the lot of women (often, as we 
have seen, as white as herself) placed from year's end 
to year's end under the absolute control of an over- 
seer such as Mr. Aughey, and in fact almost all wit- 
nesses, describes — "cruel, brutal, licentious," always 
armed with the loaded whip, the bowie-knife, and the 
revolver — liable, too, at any time, without any re- 
course under heaven, to be sold or hired out into 
harlotry, as is practically done in every southern city 
— and then say whether the s}stem in which such 
things are possible has the right to insult God and 
man any longer by its existence. 

Treating the slave thus like a brute, none could feel 
surprised if he were to become such. The colored 
witnesses who have been examined before the Freed- 
men's Inquiry Commission are very frank on the 
subject of the moral condition of their race. The 
slaves, says Robert Small — a bold fellow, who ran a 
steamer, the "Planter," out of Charleston Harbor, 
past Sumter and its dangers, to join the Federal fleet, 
a feat which Mr. Nordhoff calls "one of the bravest 
and most brilliant acts of the war" — are very envious 
of one another, cannot bear to see any one of their 
number advanced to any position which all cannot 



426 TUPELO. 

reach, and will resort to any means in their power to 
degrade him. They are, as slaves, selfish, cowardly, 
untruthful, thievish. Though they have strong 
religious impulses, their religion is little more than 
sentiment. Even professedly pious slaves have often 
no scruple in "taking" from their masters — the term 
"stealing" being reserved for thefts as between them- 
selves — the general argument being that, as their 
masters take everything from them, they may take 
back what they can. And let it always be remem- 
bered that the negro has no means of self-improve- 
ment. A father is known to have received twenty 
lashes for teaching his son to read. "In Missis- 
sippi," says Mr. Aughey, " a man who taught slaves 
to read or write would be sent to the penitentiary 
instanter." As a matter of fact, out of the eight 
thousand slaves whom the occupation of Port Royal 
threw upon the hands of the Federal government, 
only a very few had picked up the elements of book 
learning, and a couple of the older men were able 
actually to read. And whilst the means of self- 
instruction are forbidden by. law, religious teaching 
is entirely subject to the discretion of the master. If 
the preacher does not preach sound patriarchal doc- 
trine he is either hunted out of slavedom or lynched 
within it. 

The jargon used by the slave is of itself sufficient 
proof of the degradation to which he has been reduced. 
It is not, like the dialects and patois of our own coun- 
try, of France, Germany, Italy, a form of speech prob- 



TUPELO. 427 

ably coeval with the language, and which had origi- 
nally as good a chance of developing into the stand- 
ard one. It is a mere corruption of the master's 
language, the fruit of estrangement and neglect. 

Such, then, is southern slavery, as it now stands 
thoroughly revealed to the world — a system which, 
aiming at treating black men as brutes, not only suc- 
ceeds in making them such, but generally makes two 
brutes for one — the white and the black. Mr. Aughey, 
after an experience of eleven years in eight different 
slave states, declares that he has " never yet seen any 
example of slavery" that he did not "deem sinful." 
He "cannot do otherwise than pronounce it an 
unmitigated curse" to white and black alike. 

There is but one touch to add to the above picture. 
Bad as it was in itself, slavery was getting worse. 
South Carolina — the acknowledged pioneer of seces- 
sion, which tried thirty years ago, by means of "nul- 
lification," to throw off the control of the Federal 
authority; which was the first to declare actual seces- 
sion, the first to fire upon the Federal flag, the first 
to reduce a Federal fort by force of arms — is a state 
which, as one of the luminaries of secession, the Hon. 
L. W. Spratt, has declared, fairly exhibits " the normal 
nature of the institution" in a population where the 
slaves outnumber the freemen by 120,000. Yet in 
this state the Freedmen's Inquiry Commissioners em- 
phatically declare slavery "has been darkening in its 
shades of inhumanity from year to year." They 
found "conclusive evidence that half a century since 



428 TUPELO. 

its phase was much milder than now. It is the uni- 
form testimony of emancipated freed men from this 
state, above the age of sixty, that in their youth 
slavery was a merciful and considerate system com- 
pared with what it has been for thirty years past. 
These old men are bright and intelligent compared 
with the younger field hands, in many of whom a 
stolid, sullen despondency attests the stupefying in- 
fluence of slave-driving under its more recent phase." 
And what is true of South Carolina is true of all 
the South. Within the last quarter of a century es- 
pecially, slavery, from a mere practice, has grown 
into a system and a creed. Its economic powers have 
been calculated to the last figure. It has reckoned 
exactly what work could be got out of a man at every 
species of labor — how many years he should " last" at 
cotton-growing, how many at rice-growing, how 
many at sugar-growing, etc. ; the relative advantages 
of driving him — i.e., killing him off quick — or hus- 
banding his strength, have been discussed ; and food, 
clothing, shelter, have been regulated with reference 
to the data obtained. On the other hand — since by 
one of the most inflexible, most awful, yet most sal- 
utary, rules of God's government, those who "set up 
their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block 
of their iniquity before their face," when they inquire 
of the Lord, shall always be answered "according to 
the multitude of their idols," so the South, proclaim- 
ing the evil thing slavery to be good, has thought to 
find its consecration even in that Book which is a 



TUPELO. 429 

message to all mankind of deliverance from every 
shape of bondage; and it has hardened itself in this 
faith, and its priests and prophets have been deceived 
of the Lord to speak lies in its ears, to prophesy unto 
it the smooth things which it loved, till at last, in its 
devilish pride, unable to brook the very contact of 
freedom, it turned away as from an accursed thing, 
and would fain set up its own model republic, based, 
said its vice president, "upon the great truth that the 
negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, 
subordination to the superior race, is his natural and 
moral condition." 

And then were seen upon the walls of slavery's 
palace fingers of a man's hand, writing " Mene, mene, 
Tehel * * Then struck for the Southern slave 

an hour such as his friends afar ofi' had scarcely hoped 
to see, but which, with blind God-sent instinct, he 
seems himself to have been long waiting for. From 
the moment that the secession flag was raised, slavery, 
as all see now, was doomed. 

And while we may admire the gallantry with which 
the southern slave-holders have carried on the contest 
with the North ; and may do full justice to the purity 
of the motives which led a Stonewall Jackson into 
the thick of so many a fight, we must remember that 
the heroic defense of Vicksburg or Sumter no more 
palliates southern slavery than did the heroic defense 
of Jerusalem by the Jews palliate the crucifixion of 
our Lord. 

J. M. Ludlow. 

December, 1863. 



430 TUPELO. 

THE DEATH OF SLAVERY. 

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 

thou great wrong that through the slow-paced years, 
Didst hold thy millions fettered, and didst wield 
The scourge that drove the laborer to the field, 
And turn a stony gaze on human tears, 

Thy cruel reign is o'er ; 

Thy bondmen crouch no more 
In terror at the menace of thine eye ; 
For He who marks the bounds of guilty power, 
Long suffering hath heard the captive's cry 
And touched his shackles at the appointed hour, 
And lo ! they fall, and he whose limbs they galled 
Stands in his native manhood disenthralled. 

A shout of joy from the redeemed is sent : 
Ten thousand hamlets swell the hymn of thanks ; 
Our rivers roll exulting and their banks 
Send up hosannas to the firmament ! 

Fields where the bondman's toil 

No more shall trench the soil, 
Seem now to bask in a serener day ; 
The meadow-birds sing sweeter, and the airs 
Of heaven with more caressing softness play, 
Welcoming man to liberty like theirs. 
A glory clothes the land from sea to sea, 
For the great land an/1 all its coasts are free. 

Within that land wert thou enthroned of late, 
And they by whom the nation's laws were made, 
And they who filled its judgment seats obeyed 
Thy mandate, rigid as the will of fate. 

Fierce men at thy right hand 

With gesture of command, 
Gave forth the word that none might dare gainsay ; 
And grave and reverend ones who loved thee not 
Shrank from thy presence, and in blank dismay 
Choked down unuttered the rebellious thought, 



TUPELO. 431 

While meaner cowards mingling with thy train, 
Proved from the book of God thy right to reign. 

Great as thou wert and feared from shore to shore, 
The wrath of heaven o'ertook thee in thy pride : 
Thou sitt'st a ghostly shadow : by thy side 
Thy once strong arms hang nerveless evermore. 

And they who quailed but now 

Before thy lowering brow 
Devote thy memory to scorn and shame, 
And scoff at the pale powerless thing thou art, 
And they who ruled in thy imperial name, 
Subdued, and standing sullenly apart, 
Scowled at the hands that overthrew thy reign 
And shattered at a blow the prisoner's chain. 

Well was thy doom deserved ; thou didst not spare 
Life's tenderest ties, but cruelly didst part 
Husband and wife, and from the mother's heart 
Didst wrest her children, deaf to shriek and prayer ; 

Thy inner lair became 

The haunt of guilty shame ; 
Thy lash dropped blood ; the murderer at thy side, 
Showed his red hands, nor feared the vengeance due. 
Thou didst sow earth with crimes, and far and wide, 
A harvest of uncounted miseries grew 
Until the measure of thy sins at last 
Was full, and then the avenging bolt was cast ! 

Go now accursed of God, and take thy place 
With hateful memories of the elder time, 
With many a wasting plague, and nameless crime, 
And bloody war that thinned the human race ; 

With the Black Death, whose way 

Through wailing cities lay, 
Worship of Moloch, tyrannies that built 
The Pyramids, and cruel deeds that taught 
To avenge a fancied guilt by deeper guilt — 
Death at the stake to them that held them not. 



432 TUPELO. 

Lo ! The foul phantoms, silent in the gloom 
Of the flown ages, part to yield thee room. 

I see the better years that hasten by 
Carry thee back into the shadowy past, 
Where, in the dusty spaces, void and vast, 
The graves of those whom thou hast murdered lie. 
The slave-pen, through whose door 
Thy victims pass no more, 
Is there, and there shall the grim block remain 
At which the slave was sold ; while at thy feet 
Scourges and engines of restraint and pain 
Moulder and rust by thine eternal seat. 
There, mid the symbols that proclaim thy crimes, 
Dwell thou a warning to the coming times. 
May, 1S66. 

MEMORIAL SERVICE. 

Rev. J. H. Aughey, Commander of Geo. Hunter 
Post, No. 145, G. A. R., will deliver the annual sermon 
preceding memorial day, on Sunday, May 14th, at 
10:30 a.m. in the Presbyterian church. Geo. Hun- 
ter Post will attend in a body and members of Co. 
A, 7th Regt., are requested to meet at the Hall at 10 
o'clock to march to the church to attend service. 

The following prayer was offered before the 
sermon : 

Almighty God, humbly we come before Thee, our 
Creator, Preserver, Guide, and Protector. We thank 
Thee for our lives, for the mercy that has kept us 
until this hour; for Thy guidance in our marches by 
(lav and by night; for Thy constant care in the hour 
of danger, and for the preservation of our national 



TUPELO. 433 

integrity and unity. We thank Thee that so many 
of us have been permitted by Thy providence to 
assemble here this day to worship Thee, and to meet 
our former companions in arms and to rejoice with 
them that war's deadly blast has blown by and that 
gentle peace has returned, and that Thou didst" grant 
the victory to those who contended for human rights 
and national integrity and for the subversion of re- 
bellion by the re-establishment of constitutional law 
and national supremacy. Be graciously near to our 
comrades who suffer from disease or wounds and to 
the widows and orphans of those who fell in our 
holy cause. In all distress comfort them, and give 
us willing hearts and ready hands to supply their 
needs. Grant that the memory of our noble dead, 
who so freely gave their lives for the land they loved, 
may dwell ever in our hearts. God bless our coun- 
try. Bless all its loyal defenders and well wishers. 
Ever subvert rebellion and all traitorous designs 
against the land we love the best. Keep our names 
on the roll of Thy servants, and at last receive us 
into that better country, where there is fullness of 
joy, and at Thy right hand pleasures forevermorc, 
where Thou art the Supreme Commander. We ask 
all in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen ! 

The following is the sermon of Rev. J H. Aughcy 
at tha Presbyterian church, Farmington, Hi. Geo. 
Hunter Post and Co. A, Militia, attended en masse: 

" And the soldiers likewise demanded of Him, 
saving, and what shall we do?" Luke iii. 14. The 
28 



484 TUPELO. 

word of the Lord came to John the Baptist in the 
wilderness and he came into all the country about 
Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the 
remission of sins. His words were in demonstration 
of the Spirit and in power. The Jewish church 
was asleep, vital piety was well-nigh extinct. They 
were resting in forms. Though strict in the observ- 
ance of ceremonial law, they knew nothing experi- 
mentally of true repentance, a turning from sin unto 
God. Supreme love of God and equal love of their 
fellow men formed no part of their creed. John the 
Baptist announced himself as the forerunner of the 
Messiah whom the Jews were now expecting. His 
strange aspect, coarse apparel, manner of life, start- 
ling doctrine, intense earnestness, and his unflagging 
zeal, attracted universal attention. Multitudes flocked 
to his ministry and heard him enunciate truths to 
which they had been strangers. Many were con- 
vinced and convicted, and professing repentance were 
baptized. Seeing the Scribes and Pharisees in at- 
tendance upon his ministry, whose traits of character 
were hypocrisy, falsehood, and avarice, he exclaimed 
Oh ! generation of vipers, who hath warned you to 
flee from the wrath to come. Plain, pungent preach- 
ing, but presenting a true description of their char- 
acter. He then instructs them in duty. Bring forth 
fruits meet for repentance. . The people then wished 
to learn their duty, and he enjoins charity. The 
man that has clothing and food must impart to him 
that is destitute. When the tax-gatherers made the 



TUPELO. 435 

inquiry, what must we do, he informed them that 
they must exact no more than tluit which is appointed 
them. The sin of fraud or extortion was the one to 
which they were addicted and they needed special in- 
struction on this point. Then came the soldiers and 
made the inquiry of the text, and what shall we do? 
They had' professed repentance and desired baptism, 
and they wished to learn what were the fruits meet 
for repentance in their case. Repentance includes 
faith and true faith includes repentance. When the 
convicted sinner corner to the minister or Christian 
layman for instruction, saying, men and brethren 
what must we do ? The answer must invariably be 
given, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved. God, the proprietor of salvation, 
has the right to ordain the condition upon which he 
will bestow it. He has done this, making no other 
condition than that of simple faith. Faith comes 
without money and without merit, and appropriates 
all the blessings of the everlasting covenant. Faith 
honors God, it takes Him at His word. It believes 
in the sincerity of his offer and accepts His mercy. 
Faith realizes the inability of paying the purchase 
price of salvation, and rejoices that it is freely 
offered. Were it otherwise it would be impossible 
to the sons of men. Nor does faith plume itself on 
its own merit, for it recognizes the fact that it is 
merely a receptive grace and he who exercises it is 
no more deserving than the beggar who accepts the 
alms of the beneficent. Faith is not asimplerccej 



436 TUPELO. 

of testimony concerning Christ. It is a grace which 
is the gift of God. It is a new operative vital prin- 
ciple in the soul. It works by love. It is divinely 
energetic. Faith is a depending, self-emptying, self- 
denying grace, and casts every crown before the 
throne. Unbelief is a habit of the mind, formed in 
opposition to the instincts of man's moral nature, and 
is a sin against the soul. It is a sin against the 
remedy, and by its very nature precludes salvation. 
Faith is a belief of the precepts and implicit trust in 
the promises. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving 
grace, whereby we receive and rest on Him alone for 
salvation as He is offered to us in the gospel. The 
soul is the life of the body, faith is the life of the 
soul, and Jesus Christ is the life of faith. God is 
good and wise and faithful and true. He is omni- 
present and omnipotent. We may implicitly trust 
in one possessing all these attributes. We would 
be verily guilty of a great sin to do otherwise. A 
commander in the army who was good, wise, brave, 
and always sought to promote the best interests of 
the soldiers in his command, deserved the obedience 
and esteem of them all, and the soldier who was 
guilty of insubordination deserved punishment to the 
extent of his demerit. Those who disobey the King 
of Kings, much more deserve punishment. 

John the Baptist said to the soldiers, do violence 
to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content 
with your wages. What glorious fruits would fol- 
low obedience to these injunctions. Discipline is 



TUPELO. 437 

essentially necessary. A regiment of well disciplined 
soldiers will put to flight twenty thousand undis- 
ciplined men. Without discipline an army is a mere 
rabble of little worth when confronting an enemy. 
In order to proper discipline, the recruit must study 
military tactics and attend drill regularly. The 
Christian soldier must to this end study the Bible. 
There he learns all about the wiles and stratagems 
of his enemies and how to circumvent them. He 
learns what is duty on the march and in the camp. 
He learns all about the necessary armor and how to se- 
cure it. He learns the use of the sandals, the breast- 
plate, the helmet, the girdle, the shield, and the 
sword. He in this way becomes a good soldier of 
Jesus Christ. He learns not to entangle himself 
with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him 
who has called him to be a soldier. 

The remembrance of past perils and hardships 
forge indissoluble bonds of friendship. Together 
you followed Sherman to the sea. Together you 
stormed and carried the heights of Lookout Mountain 
and gained a glorious victory on Mission Ridge. 
Side by side you entered Fort Fisher and placed the 
starry banner upon its ramparts, deemed impregnable 
by its defenders. Animated by the same spirit you 
turned the tide of battle at Five Forks, and grandly 
assaulted and captured the Malakoffs and Redans that 
formed the frowning battlements of Petersburg. 
Together standing upon the sumit of Round Top you 
repelled the fierce onset of Lee's veterans and made 



438 TUPELO 

the field of Gettysburg grandly historic. Facing the 
grape and canister and screaming shell and bursting 
bomb, the leaden rain and iron hail, you followed the 
starry banner in company on many a well fought field 
till victory perched upon your standards, until your 
country's liberty and Integrity were preserved intact 
beyond the shadow of a doubt, the possibility of a 
perad venture, then you marched home arm in arm to 
receive the plaudits and honors accorded by your 
grateful countrymen. These hallowed recollections 
and associations should burnish brightly friendship's 
golden chain, and preserve intact and inviolable the 
amity of the years that tried men's souls. Do not 
make your comrade an offender for a word. With- 
out due reflection in an unguarded moment he may 
have said something that gave offense. Think of 
Champion Hill, and Black River Bridge, and Jack- 
son, and Vicksburg, where he faced the glittering 
bayonet, and where he stood shoulder to shoulder 
with the bravest of the brave, facing death with 1111- 
blanchcd cheek and without the tremor of a nerve, 
earing; not what became of himself so that the cause 
which lay nearest his heart might triumph. Think 
of his heroism and patriotism and forgive. The 
soldier of the civil war should do nothing that would 
tarnish his well merited fame. He deserves well of 
his countrymen. When the tocsin sounded the alarm, 
when his imperiled country called her sons to arms, 
lie left home with all its ties and delightful environ- 
ment, and devoted , health and lite, yea, all his 



TUPELO. 4:)9 

personal interests to her service and to do her high 
behest. Republics are not always ungrateful. When 
a boy, I remember that the place of honor was always 
accorded to the surviving veterans of the Revolu- 
tionary Avar. And a portion of every address upon 
all public occasions was devoted to a recital of their 
patriotic deeds. Now the graves of our deceased 
comrades are decked with flowers by fair hands, 
prompted by loving hearts. In coming years, ere the 
departure to their Celestial home of the final corps 
of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the 
mighty host of loyal heroes who participated in the 
Avar for the Union, the post of honor will be assigned 
them whenever and wherever their \ T enerated presence 
is recognized in public assemblies. Were there pres- 
ent here to-day a hero who had fought at Bunker 
Hill and GermantoAvn, or at Brandywine and Sara- 
toga and YorktoAvn, one Avho had witnessed the sur- 
render of Burgoyne and Cornwallis, you would be 
so engrossed in contemplating this distinguished 
visitor and in admiration of his heroic services in the 
dark days of the Revolution that the services of the 
hour would pass by unheeded. And at the close you 
would crowd up and grasp him by the hand and 
assure him of your deep gratitude for his inestimable 
services in the achievement of our country's inde- 
pendence. This honor Avill be accorded you, my 
comrades, in coming years — even now you arc receiv- 
ing the earnest of it, the i\v^t fruits of that greater 
harvest which our surviving comrade- will reap in 



440 TUPELO. 

the near future. The heroes of Chickauiauga and 
Antietam and Corinth and the Wilderness, and Tupelo 
and Iuka, and a hundred other well fought fields, 
Avill be held in honorable and everlasting remem- 
brance by their grateful fellow countrymen. Do 
nothing to forfeit the respect and esteem in which you 
are deservedly held, or to abate a jot of the meed of 
honor which is your due, so that in coming years the 
marble monument which marks your sleeping dust 
with deep cut letters may record but truth when it 
recounts your virtues and speaks to posterity of your 
sacrifices and perils in the subversion of the rebellion 
which with treasonable hands sought the overthrow of 
the Republic in the interests of a slave-holding 
oligarchy. Comrades, you have not escaped unscathed 
from the perils of camp life and the shock of battle. 
Many bear honorable scars. Many carry crutch or 
cane to support their tottering frames as they walk 
our streets intent upon the pursuits and avocations 
by which they procure their daily bread, "lis rare 
to find one who does not suifer from some lesion as 
the result of his war experience. But few murmur 
or complain of the pain they endure. With un re- 
pining fortitude they walk about our streets and only 
those who are intimately acquainted with them know 
that many of them are physical wrecks, by mala- 
dies engendered in the service fast approaching the 
vital pari, the citadel of life, to still forever its throb- 
bing. More than half the survivors of the war have 
crossed death's dark river and have entered upon their 



TUPELO. 44 1 

eternal destination, and we are following fast. During 
the war four hundred thousand loyal men in camp, 
in prison, and on the battle field, gave up their lives 
to attest their love for the starry banner and the 
principles it represents. 

"On fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And glory guards with solemn round 

The bivouac of the dead." 

" Peace to the perished ! may the warrior's meed 
And tears of triumph their reward prolong." 

" Such graves as theirs are pilgrim shrines 

To no creed or clime confined. 
The Delphic vales, the Palestines, 

The Meccas of the mind." 

We must all ere long attend the grand review on 
high. Let us all so live that clad in the regulation 
uniform, the conqueror's robe which has been washed 
white in the blood of the Lamb, we may be accepted 
in that day and be welcomed to the Grand Army 
above, the sacramental host of God's elect — where 
we will forever praise Him who as the Captain of our 
salvation, secured for us the inheritance and who, 
giving us grace to conquer, if we prove faithful unto 
death will bestow upon us a crown of life. A soldier 
true to his country from patriotic motives has a title 
to nobility more honorable than that conferred by 
royal prerogative, but a soldier who is not only true 
to his country but also true to his God — a loyal 
soldier of the cross, is still more worthy of honor. 



442 TUPELO. 

There were devout soldiers in the days of our 
Savior and His Apostles. Cornelius and the devout 
soldier who journeyed from Joppa to Cesarea with a 
message to Peter deserve honorable mention. Col. 
Gardiner, Gen. Havelock, and Gen. Gordon, of the 
British army, were brave officers and sincere Chris- 
tians. In America our own Washington, Admiral 
Foote, Commodore Stockton, and Gens. Howard and 
Fisk, as well as many subalterns in the service, prove 
that high Christian character is not incompatible with 
the soldier's profession. Let us never forget that 
our great national destiny must be woven out of the 
fibers of individual character and achievement. The 
life of the nation is the life of its citizens. 

Let us see to it that though our days are but a 
hand-breadth, the nation's recurring centennials of 
magnificent progress shall take no dimness nor weak- 
ness from that strand which our little life has worked 
into it. The soldiers said to John, "and what shall 
we do, that is, what shall we do to escape condemna- 
tion, and bear fruit unto eternal life?" Your first 
duty is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Com- 
mit all your interests for time and eternity unto Him. 
This Paul did, and thus confidently affirms : " I 
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that 
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
him against that day." Arc you ignorant? Ho is 
the All-wise God. Are you weak? He is strong 
Are you sinful? He was holy, harmless, undefined, 
and separate from sinners — the sinless one. Are "OU 



TUPELO. 443 

destitute of all things? In Him all fullness dwells. 
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 
and all these things shall be added unto you. No 
good thing will He withhold from them that walk 
uprightly. Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt 
thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. 
Loving trust and trusting love is the essence of true 
religion. Jehovah calls for volunteers. He wants 
you to come and be mustered in as recruits in the 
grand army of the church militant. He does not 
wish you to be spiritual guerrillas, serving as suits 
your own individual whim, under no recognized com- 
mander, and liable to be cut off in detail or captured 
and hanged as spies, or mere hangers on, receiving 
neither pay nor honor. Enlist in the army of King 
Immanuel. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay 
hold upon eternal life. War a good warfare. En- 
dure hardness as becometh good soldiers. March 
with unfaltering steps under the blood-stained ban- 
ner of the Cross toward glory, immortality, and 
eternal life. We promise you wages. It may be, 
while the conflict lasts, a fierce and agonizing con- 
test, and during life there is no discharge in this war, 
but at death you will receive your discharge, or rather 
you will be translated from the church militant on 
earth to the church triumphant in glory. Then you 
will have a palace home by the crystal sen, a king- 
dom and a crown will be given you as eternal in its 
duration as the throne of God, and throughout the 
ceaseless cycles of eternity -on will sing the victor's 



444 TUPELO. 

song, and rejoice with your companions in glory, and 
so be forever with the Lord. And now unto the 
King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only true God, 
be glory and honor, and dominion and power forever. 
Amen. 

Be bold, be firm, be strong, be true, 

And dare to stand alone; 
Strike for the right whate'er you do, 

Though helpers there be none. 

Strike for the right, and with clean hands, 

Exalt the truth on high; 
Thou'lt find warm sympathizing hearts 

Among the passers by. 

Those who have thought and felt and prayed, 

Yet could not singly dare 
The battle's brunt, but by thy side 

Will every danger share. 

Then learn this truth, the base of all, 
That all are equal, so they fill 
Their proper sphere and do God's will, 
There is no other great or small. 

There is a tear for all that die, 

A mourner o'er the humblest grave, 

But nations swell the funeral cry, 
And triumph weeps above the brave. 

Cowards are cruel, but the brave 
Love mercy, and delight to save. 



TUPELO. 445 

FROM MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS BY REV. T. C. EVANS, 
FARMINGTON, ILL. 

The urgent call of our country. The Union was 
not saved by sentiment. Our nation cannot live on 
gush. Hard work, faithful service is now demanded. 
At present I will not speak of the two-horned moral 
monster now growing fat beneath our flag. I mean 
Mormonism, with its bigamy and polygamy. Just 
now I will not speak of that fiery, fatal, infernal 
fiend which flourishes under the American segis. I 
mean the liquor traffic, with its long trail of slimy 
sins. Of one crime I must now speak. Silence in 
this presence would be sin. The crime is that of 
tampering with the ballot-box. It is the father of all 
eyils to our land. It is moral treason. It is Brutus 
sneaking with a concealed dagger to bury the blade 
in the heart of the Nation. What is the ballot-box? 
It is the heart and lungs of the Republic. It is the 
force that sends the blood through the arteries of the 
Nation. It is also the organ that cleanses the blood 
in the body politic. The man or the gang that cor- 
rupts the ballot-box poisons the blood of America. 
Can we allow that? No, never and be worthy of 
the name of American. If our courts of justice forget 
themselves so far as to permit the heart of justice and 
the neck of franchise to be crushed under the heels of 
legal technicality and judicial disagreement, the 
soldiers must come to the rescue. Members of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, keep your bayonets 



-146 TUPELO. 

bright, keep your cannon clean, keep your powder 
dry, keep your trust in God, and when called on 
smite to the ground the traitor at the voting poll, 
even him that tampers with the ballot-box. If the 
safety of Troy depended upon the preservation of the 
statue of Pallas, so much more does the preserva- 
tion of the right of suffrage and the. purity of the 
ballot inure to the safety of the Republic. Hence 
every president who will not as commander in chief 
of the army protect every legal voter in casting his 
ballot is recreant both to his oath and duty, and in 
that case should be called to account for cowardice or 
abetment. 

" There is a weapon surer set 
And better than the bayonet, 
A weapon that comes down as still 
As snow-flakes fall upon the sod, 
Yet executes a freeman's will 
As lightning does the will of God; 
Nor from its force nor bolts nor locks 
Can shield them — 'tis the ballot-box." 

WILL CAELETON'S FAMOUS MEMORIAL DAY POEM— 
"COVER THEM OVER.'; 

Cover them over with beautiful flowers; 
Deck them with garlands, these brothers of ours; 
Lying so silent by night and by day, 
Sleeping the years of their manhood away; 
Years they had marked for the joys of the brave; 
Years that must waste in the sloth of the grave. 
All the bright laurels they fought to make bloom 
Fell to the ea-th when they went to the tomb. 
Give them the meed they have won in the past; 
Give them the honors their merits forecast; 



TUPELO. 447 

Give them the chapleta they won in the strife, 
Give them the laurels they lost with their life. 
Caver them over, yes, cover them over — 
Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 
Crown in your heart these dead heroes of ours, 
And cover them over. with beautiful flowers. 

Cover the faces that motionless lie, 
Shut from the blue of the glorious sky : 
Faces once light with the smiles of the gay — 
Faces now marred with the frown of decay. 
Eyes that beamed friendship and love to your own; 
Lips that sweet thoughts of affection made known; 
Brows you have soothed in the day of distress; 
Cheeks you have flushed by the tender caress; 
Faces that brightened at war's stirring cry; 
Faces that streamed when they bade you good-bye; 
Faces that glowed in the battle's red flame, 
Paling for naught, till the death angel came. 
Cover them over — yes, cover them over — 
Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 
Kiss in your heart these dead heroes of ours, 
And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 

Cover the hands that are resting half-tried, 
Crossed on the bosom or low by the side: 
Hands to you, mother, in infancy thrown; 
Hands that you, father, close hid in your own; 
Hands where you, sister, when tried and dismayed, 
Hung for protection, and counsel, and aid; 
Hands that you, brother, for faithfulness knew; 
Hands that you, wife, wrung in bitter adieu. 
Bravely the cross of their country they bore; 
Words of devotion they wrote with their gore; 
Grandly they grasped for a garland of light, 
Catching the mantle of death-darkened night. 
Cover them over — yes, cover them over — 
Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 



448 TUPELO. 

Clasp in your hearts these dead heroes of ours, 
And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 

Cover the feet that, all weary and torn, 

Hither by comrades were tenderly borne; 

Feet that have trodden through love-lighted ways, 

Near to your own, in the old happy days; 

Feet that have pressed, in life's open morn, 

Roses of pleasure and death's poison thorn. 

Swiftly they rush to the help of the right, 

Firmly they stood in the shock of the fight. 

Ne'er shall the enemy's hurrying tramp 

Summon them forth from their death-guarded camp; 

Ne'er till Eternity's bugle shall sound, 

Will they come out from their couch in the ground. 

Cover them over — yes, cover them over — 

Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 

Rough were the paths of these heroes of ours — 

Now cover them over with beautiful flowers. 

Cover the hearts that have beaten so high, 
Beaten with hopes that were born but to die; 
Hearts that have burned in the heat of the fray; 
Hearts that have yearned for the homes far away; 
Hearts that beat high in the charge's loud tramp; 
Hearts that low fell in the prison's foul damp. 
Once they were swelling with courage and will, 
Now they are lying all pulseless and still; 
Once they were glowing with friendship and love, 
I Now the great souls have gone soaring above. 
B.ravely their blood to the nation they gave, 
Then in her bosom they found them a grave. 
Cover them over — yes, cover them over — 
Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 
Press to your hearts these dead heroes of ours, 
And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 

One there is, sleeping, in yonder low tomb, 
Worthy the brightest of flowers that bloom. 



TCPELO. 449 

Weakness of womanhood's life was her part; 
Tenderly strong was her generous heart. 
Bravely she stood by the sufferer's side, 
Checking the pain and the life-bearing tide: 
Fighting the swift-sweeping phantom of death, 
Easing the dying man's fluttering breath. 
Then when the strife that had nerved her was o'er, 
Calmly she went to where ware are no more. 
Voices have blessed her now silent and dumb; 
Voices will bless her in long years to come. 
Cover them over — yes, cover them over — 
Blessings, like angels, around her shall hover: 
Treasure the name of that sister of ours, 
And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 

Cover the thousands that sleep far away — 
Sleep where their friends cannot find them to-day; 
They who in mountain, and hillside, and dell, 
Rest where they wearied, and lie where they fell. 
Softly the grass-blade creeps round their repose; 
Sweetly above them the wild flow 'ret blows; 
Zephyrs of freedom fly gently o'er head, 
Whispering names for the patriot dead. 
So in our minds we will name them once more. 
So in our hearts we will cover them o'er; 
Roses and lilies and violets blue 
Bloom in our souls for the brave and the true. 
Cover them over — yes, cover them over — 
Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover, 
Think of those far-away heroes of ours, 
And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 

When the long years have crept slowly away, 
E'en to the dawn of earth's funeral day; 
When at the Archangel's trumpet and tread 
Rise up the faces and forms of the dead ; 
When the great world its last judgment awaits; 
When the blue sky shall swing open its gates, 

29 



450 TUPELO. 

And our long columns march silently through, 
Past the Great Captain for final review — 
Then for the blood that has flowed for the right, 
Crowns shall be given, untarnished and bright; 
Then the glad ear of each war-martyred son, 
Proudly shall hear the good judgment, "Well done." 
Blessings for garlands shall cover them over — 
Parent, and husband, and brother, and lover: 
God will reward these dead heroes of ours, 
And cover them over with beautiful flowers. 

HOW SLEEP THE BRAVE ! 

How sleep the brave who sink to rest 
By all their country's wishes blessed ! 
When spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
Eeturns to deck their hallowed mould, 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
Than fancy's feet have ever trod. 

By fairy hands their knell is rung, 
By forms unseen their dirge is sung; 
There honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay; 
And freedom shall awhile repair, 
To dwell a weeping hermit there ! 

DECORATION DAY. 

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat 

The soldier's last tattoo; 
No more ou life's parade shall meet 

The brave but fallen few. 
On fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And glory guards with solemn round 

The bivouac of the dead. 

No rumor of the foe's advance 
Now sweeps upon the wind; 



TUPELO. 451 

No troubled thoughts at midnight haunt, 

Of loved ones left behind; 
No vision of the morrow's strife 

The warrior's dream alarms; 
Nor braying horn, nor screaming fife 

At dawn shall call to arms. 

Their shivered swords are red with rust, 

Their plumed heads are bowed; 
Their haughty banner trailed in dust 

Is now their martial shroud, 
And plenteous funeral tears have washed 

The red stains from each brow, 
And the proud forms by battle gashed 

Are freed from anguish now. 

Now 'neath their parent turf they rest, 

Far from the gory field. 
Borne to a Spartan mother's breast 

On many a bloody shield; 
The sunshine of their native sky 

Smiles sadly on them here, 
And hundred eyes and hearts watch by 

The soldier's sepulcher. 

Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, 

Dear as the blood ye gave ! 
No impious footsteps here shall tread 

The herbage of your grave; 
Nor shall your glory be forgot 

While fame her record keeps, 
Or honor points the hallowed spot 

Where valor proudly sleeps. 

Yon faithful herald's blazoned stone 

With mournful pride shall tell, 
When many a vanished age hath flown, 

The story how ye fell ! 



452 TUPELO. 

Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's flight, 
Nor time's remorseless doom 

Shall mar one ray of glory's light 
That guilds your deathless tomb. 

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY. 

By the flow of the inland river, 

Whence the fleets of iron have fled, 
Where the blades of grave-grass quiver, 

Asleep are the ranks of the dead. 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment day — 
Under*the one the Blue, 

Under the other the Gray. 

These in the robings of glory, 

Those in the gloom of defeat, 
All, with the battle blood gory, 

In the dusk of eternity meet. 
Under the sod and the dew 

Waiting the judgment day — 
Under the laurel the Blue, 

Under the willow the Gray. 

From the silence of sorrowful hours 

The desolate mourners go, 
Lovingly laden with flowers 

Alike for the friend and the foe. 
Under the sod and the dew 

Waiting the judgment day — 
Under the roses the Blue, 

Under the lilies the Gray. 

So with an equal splendor 
The morning sun-rays fall, 

With a touch impartially tender 
On the blossoms blooming for all. 



tupei.o. 453 

Under the sod and the dew 

Waiting the judgment day — 
Broidered with gold the Blue, • 

Mellowed with gold the Gray. 

So when the summer calleth 

On forest and held of grain, 
With an equal murmur falleth 
, The cooling drip of the rain. 
Under the sod and the dew 

Waiting the j udgment day — 
Wet with the rain the Blue, 

Wet with the rain the Gray. 

Sadly, but not with upbraiding, * 

The generous deed was done; 
In the storm of the years that are fading 

No braver battle was won. 
Under the sod and the dew 

Waiting the judgment day — 
Under the blossoms the Blue, 

Under the garlands the Gray. 

No more shall the war cry sever, 

Or the winding rivers be red — 
They banish our anger forever 

When they laurel the graves of our dead. 
Under the sod and the dew 

Waiting the judgment day — 
Love and tears for the Blue, 

Tears and love for the Gray. 

AN ANSWER TO THE "BLUE AND GRAY." 

WRITTEN I5Y A LOYAL LADY. 

The loyal Blue and the traitor Gray, 

Alike in the grave are sleeping. 
Lying side by side in the sunlight's ray 

And under the storm cloud's weeping. 



454 TUPELO. 

'Tis well to forgive the past, 

God giving us grace we may, 
But never while life shall last 

Can we honor or love the Gray. 

Our boys in Blue were loyal and true, 

For their God and their country dying; 
With a grateful pride that ever is new 
We garland their graves where they're lying. 
They were murdered by rebel bands, 

They fell in the fearful tray, 
Guarding our flag from traitor's hands; 
AVe do not love the Gray. 

We would not hate them, our hearts would fain 

Cast a vail o'er their shameful story — 
It will not bring back our loyal slain, 
To recall their treason gory ; 
But barriers deep and wide, 

Divide the false from the true ; 
Shall treason and honor stand side by side, 
Is the Gray the peer of the Blue? 

Answers each loyal heart to-day, 

They are peers and equals never; 
No wreath on a traitor's grave we lay — 
Let shame be his weed forever. 
Give love where love is due. 
To the loyal all honor pay; 
Love and honor belong to the Blue, 
But what do we owe the Gray? 

e owe them three hundred thousand graves, 
Where the loved and lost are lying, 
We owe them where'er our banner waves, 
Homes filled with tears and sighing. 
Do they think that we forget our dead, 

Our boys who wore the Blue — 
That because they sleep in the same cold bed 
We know not the false from the true? 



TUPELO. 455 

Believe it not; where our heroes lie 

The very ground is holy; 
His name who dared for the right to dil- 
ls sacred, however lowly ; 

But honor the traitor Gray — 

Make it the peer of the Blue — 
One flower at the feet of treason lay ? 
Never ! while God is true. 

THE NATION'S DEAD. 
Four hundred thousand men — 

The brave, the good, the true — 
In tangled wood, in mountain glen, 
On battle plain, in prison pen, 

Lie dead for rue and you ! 
Four hundred thousand of the brave 
Have made our ransomed soil their grave 

For me and you ! 
Good friend, for me and you ! 

In many a fevered swamp, 

By many a black bayou, 
In many a cold and frozen camp, 
The weary sentinel ceased his tramp, 

And died for me and you ! 
From western plain to ocean tide 
Are stretched the graves of those who died 

For me and you ! 
Good friend, for me and you ! 

On many a bloody plain 

Their ready swords they drew, 
And poured their life-blood like the rain, 
A home, a heritage to gain — 

To gain for me and you ! 
Our brothers mustered by our side, 
They marched, they fought, and bravely died 

For me and you ! 
Srood friend, for me and you '. 



456 TUPELO. 

Up many a fortress wall 

They charged — those boys in blue; 
'Mid surging smoke and volley 'd ball, 
The bravest were the fi rst to fall — 

To fall for me and you ! 
The noble men — the nation's pride — 
Four hundred thousand men have died 

For me and you ! 
Good friend, for me and you ! 

In treason's prison-hold 

Their martyr spirits grew 
To stature like the saints of old, 
And 'mid dark agwnies untold 

They starved for me and you ! 
The good, the patient, and the tried — 
Four hundred thousand men have died 

For me and you ! 
Good friend, for me and you ! 

A debt we ne'er can pay 

To them is j ustly due, 
And to the nation's latest day 
Our children's children still shall say, 

"They died for me and you ! " 
Four hundred thousand of the brave 
Made this, our ransomed soil, their grave, 

For me and you ! 
Good friend, for me and you ! 

SLEEP, COMRADES, SLEEP ! 

I. 
Sleep, comrades, sleep ! The clinging rust 

Lies thick upon the blade, 
And valor is obscured by lust 

Of money and of trade; 
The fife is mute; no more the drum 

The drowsy camp alarms; 



TUPELO. 457 



The piping times of peace have come, 
And Pleasure spreads her charms. 



Sleep, comrades, sleep ! The cannon's roar 

No longer fills the air; • 
The rifle volley routs no more 

The rebel from his lair. 
Where once the beacon brightly shone, 

The sentry walked his round, 
The crumbling headstone marks alone 

The consecrated ground. 



Sleep, comrades, sleep ! The battle flag 

Is rotting on the staff, 
And soon, perchance, the tattered rag 

Will waken but a laugh; 
The peaceful plowshare cleaves the sod 

Once wet with War's red stain, 
And fields that mighty armies trod 

Are starred with flowers again. 

IV. 

Sleep, comrades, sleep ! Though soon forgot 

By some, while life endures, 
Forget our loving hearts will not 

To keep their tryst with yours; 
The general muster of the dead, 

Whate'er on earth betide, 
Shall find us still by Glory led 

And marching by your side. 



458 TUPELO. 

THE VETERAN'S REQUEST. 
BY BAYARD TAYLOR. 

I. 
An old and crippled veteran to the war department came, 
He sought the Chief who led him, on many a field of fame, 
The Chief who shouted " I^rward ! " where'er his banner goes, 
And bore its stars in triumph behind the flyiug foes. 

II. 
"Have you forgotten, General," the battered soldier cried, 
" The day of eighteen hundred twelve, when I was at your 

side? 
"Have you forgotten Johnson, that fought at Lundy's Lane? 
'Tis true I'm old and pensioned, but I want to fight again." 

III. 
"Have I forgotten?" said the Chief; "my brave old soldier, 

No! 
And here's the hand I gave you then, and let it tell you so; 
But you have done your share, my friend; you're crippled, old, 

and gray, 
And we have need of younger arms and fresher blood to-day." 

IV. 
" But, General," cried the veteran, a flush upon his brow, 
" The very men who fought with us, they say, are traitors now; 
They've torn the flag of Lundy's Lane, our old red, white, and 

blue, 
And while a drop of blood is left, I'll show that drop is true. 

V. 
"I'm not so weak but I can strike, and I've a good old gun, 
To get the range of traitors' hearts, and pick them, one by one; 
Your minie,-rifies and such arms it ain't worth while to try, 
I couldn't get the hang of them, but I'll keep my powder dry." 

VI. 
" God bless you, comrade ! " said the Chief — " God bless your 

loyal heart ! . 

But younger men are in the field, and claim to have their part. 



TUPELO. 459 

They'll plant our sacred banner in each rebellious town, 
And woe, henceforth, to any hand that dares to pull it down." 

VII. 
" But, General ! "—still persisting, the weeping veteran cried; 
" I'm young enough to follow, so long as you're my guide; 
And some, you know, must bite the dust, and that at least 

can I; 
So, give the young ones place to fight, but me a place to die ! 

VIII. 
" If they should fire on Pickens, let the colonel in command 
Put me upon the rampart, with the flag-staff in my hand ; 
No odds how hot the cannon smoke, or how hot the snells may 

fly, 

I'll hold the Stars and Stripes aloft, and hold them till I die. 

IX. 

" I'm ready, General, so you let a post to me be given, 
Where Washington can see me, as he looks from highest 

Heaven, 
And say to Putnam at his side, or, may be, General Wayne, 
' There stands old Billy Johnson, that fought at Lundy's Lane.' 

x. 
" And when the fight is hottest, before the traitors fly, 
When shell and ball are screeching, and bursting in the sky, 
If any shot should hit me, and lay me on my face, 
My soul would go to Washington's, and not to Arnold's place." 

THE SOLDIER'S REPRIEVE. 

" My Fred! I can't understand it," 

And his voice it quivered with pain, 
While the tears kept slowly dropping 
On his trembling hands like rain. 
" For Fred was so brave and loyal, 
So true ; but my eyes are dim, 
And I cannot read the letter, 
The last I shall get from him. 



460 TUPELO. 

Please read it, sir, while I listen — 
In fancy I see him — dead ; 

My boy, shot down like a traitor, 
My noble, my brave boy, Fred ! '.' 

" Dear father," so ran the letter, 
1 ' To morrow when twilight creeps 
Along the hill to the churchyard, 

O'er the grave where mother sleeps, 
When the dusky shadows gather, 

They'll lay your boy in his grave, 
For nearly betraying the country 

He would give his life to save. 
And, father, I tell you truly, 

With almost my latest breath, 
That your boy is not a traitor, 

Though he dies a traitor's death. 

" Yon remember Bennie Wilson? 

He's suffered a deal of pain, 
He was only that day ordered 

Back into the ranks again. 
I carried all of his luggage, 

With mine on the march that day ; 
I gave him my arm to lean on, 

Else he had dropped by the way. 
'Twas Bennie's turn to be sentry ; 

But I took his place, and I — 
Father, I dropped asleep, and now 

I must die as traitor's die. " 

" The Colonel is kind and thoughtful, 

He has done the best he can, 
And they will not bind or blind me — 

I shall meet death like a man. 
Kiss little Blossom ; but, father, 

Need you tell her how I fall? " — 
A sob from the shadowed corner — 

Yes, Blossom had heard it all. 



TUPELO. 461 

As she kissed the precious letter, 
She said, with faltering breath : 
" Our Fred was never a traitor, 

Though he dies a traitor's death." 

And a little sun-brown maiden, 

In a shabby, time-worn dress, 
Took her seat a half hour later 

In the crowded night-express. 
The conductor heard her story 

As he held her dimpled hand, 
And sighed for the sad hearts breaking 

All over the troubled land, 
He tenderly wiped the tear drops 

From the blue eyes brimming o'er, 
A.nd guarded her footsteps safely 

Till she reached the White House door. 

The President sat at his writing; 

But the eyes were kind and mild 
fhat turned with a look of wonder 

On the little shy faced child. 
A.nd he read Fred's farewell letter, 

With a look of sad regret, 
" 'Tis a brave, young life," he murmured, 
" And his country needs him yet, 
From an honored place in battle 

He shall bid the world good-by, 
If that brave young life is needed, 

He shall die as heroes die." 

— [Rose Hartwich Thorpe, in the Detroit Free Press. 



462 TUPELO. 

THE UNITED STATES IN 1984. 

" This is a bad world," President D wight, of Yale, 
used to say to his Senior class; "but, gentlemen, it 
is a good world to do good in." 

We were reminded of the president's remark on 
reading the calculations of another clergyman, Mr. 
F. B. Lincke, one of Queen Victoria's chaplains, who 
has been ciphering out the destiny of the English- 
speaking world. After doing a number of hard sums, 
he comes to the conclusion that, one hundred years 
from now, there will be nearly as many people speak- 
ing the English language as there are now inhabitants 
of the earth. 

He figures it up thus : Great Britain and Ireland, 
seventy millions; South Africa, sixteen millions; 
Australia, forty-eight millions; Canada, sixty-four 
millions; the United States, eight hundred millions; 
total, nine hundred and ninety-eight millions. 

Having arrived at this enormous result, Mr. 
Lincke enters upon conjectures as to the kind of peo- 
ple those thousand millions are likely to be. He 
has remarked, in reading the history of the past, that 
the dream of the philosopher comes true, and he thinks, 
therefore, that what the best men and women are 
now striving for with pen, tongue, and hand, will be 
realized in and by that future multitude. 

They will all be in some degree educated. There 
will be no class deaf to the wisdom of the age, blind 
to its art, insensible to its aspiration. There will be 



TUPELO. 463 

no estates too large to be a good to the owners, and, 
as a rule, the farmer will be the owner of the acres 
he tills " Landlordism," so far as the naked land 
is concerned, will not exist. The largest class will 
be farmers, living on their own land, and holding no 
more of it than they can utilize. 

The nations will live in peace through free-trade 
and courts of arbitration, knowing no rivalry apart 
from the generous strife to excel in the arts and the 
virtues. Instead of contending on the field of battle 
for vulgar and odious mastery, the nations will, as 
Victor Hugo has it, give one another rendezvous at 
International Expositions — the "true fields of battle" 
for civilized men. 

There will be, of course, no such thing as rank or 
caste, but every honest man will stand in all com- 
panies the equal brother of the rest, whether he be 
scavenger or statesman. 

Are these but the idle thoughts of an optimist? 
That depends upon us, who have the honor to inhabit 
the English-speaking world at the present time. It 
depends much upon the youngest of us who will live 
in the dawn of that greater day, and some of whom 
will be known as all but contemporaries of the thou- 
sand millions who will speak our language in 1984. 



464 TUPELO. 

THE ENGLISH OR AMERICAN LANGUAGE. 

[From the Grammatical Guide.] 

The American language will be in the near future 
the universal language. It is the commercial language 
of the globe. It is the vernacular of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and the United States, the two most enlight- 
ened, powerful, and influential nations on the earth. 
The infant Empires of Australia and New Zealand 
speak it. The Republic of Liberia and the British 
African Colonies will give the language to Africa^ 
Great Britain and her Colonial possessions comprise 
one-fourth of the earth's inhabitants ; the language 
of the mother country is rapidly becoming the lan- 
guage of her Colonies. All the countries speaking 
this language are radiating centers whence emanate 
the beams of lingual light which will ere long illume 
the whole planet. Every year half a million Ger- 
mans and French are exchanging their language for 
ours. Every idea that enters the mind, every shade 
of meaning, every variety and contrariety of thought 
and opinion, may be expressed with clearness, force, 
and elegance in the language of America. 

The poet, the statesman, the divine, cannot find 
amid earth's clashing tongues a better vehicle of 
thought. Poverty of expression results only from 
ignorance of the language, or from poverty of thought. 

The genius of Shakespeare, the sublime imagina- 
tion of Milton, the ennobling thoughts and grand 
conceptions of the minor stars in the constellation of 



tupelo. 46 ;j 

English literature, all found the amplest expression 
in the Anglo-Saxon tongue. Bryant, Longfellow, 
Whittier, Prescott, Bancroft, Fenimore Cooper, and 
all the bright luminaries which shine in the galaxy 
of American literature, found the utmost felicity of 
expression in their own vernacular. The power of 
speech is a great blessing conferred upon the human 
race. The ability to hold intercourse with each other 
by means of a language so full, so expressive, and so 
forcible, is one of the greatest temporal blessings 
which God has bestowed upon the American speak- 
ing nations. It is our bounden duty to guard our 
language from everything that militates against its 
purity, from provincialisms, vulgarisms, slang, and 
flash phrases which are insidiously creeping into the 
colloquial dialect of the people. Unless we do this 
our language will soon undergo serious deterioration. 
The pure in heart and life will sedulously cultivate 
purity of speech. Nothing better indicates mental 
and moral worth than a chaste and pure conversa- 
tional style. In order to form this style, study dili- 
gently the writings of our standard authors, whose 
works have stood the test of time and are still popu- 
lar. Make their style your own. Reject the ephem- 
eral trash, the mushroom literature of the day, which 
panders to a depraved taste. Read it, and it will 
vitiate and enervate your style. In order to culti- 
vate the greatest purity of expression and to form a 
vigorous and chaste style, be a diligent student of the 
Bible. Its sublime conceptions, its ennobling themes, 
30 



166 TUPELO. 

its pure morality, its simple, chaste, vigorous, and 
classic style, its wide range of subjects, will bestow 
upon those who study it diligently a liberal education, 
even though not conversant with any other volume, 
while he who is versed in all human lore, and is ig- 
norant of the sacred Scriptures, cannot compete with 
him who has made them a study. The greatest 
statesmen and most distinguished authors, both Eng- 
lish and American, read the Bible daily. One object 
they had in view was to improve their style, to ac- 
quire fluency and felicity of expression. Shakespeare 
was a student of the Bible, as his writings prove. 
Milton made it a daily study, John Quincy Adams, 
"the old man eloquent," was well versed in its sub- 
lime lore. Webster affirmed that he was more in- 
debted for his style to the Bible than to any other 
volume. Make the Bible a daily study ; become 
familiar with its modes of thought and expression, 
and your style will be free from redundancy, mere- 
tricious adornment, slang, and vulgarity. It will be 
correct, forcible, expressive. Every section of our 
country has localisms, provincialisms, and incongrui- 
ties of speech peculiar to it. These should be care- 
fully avoided. 

DUTY OF CHRISTIAN MINISTERS AND PEOPLE. 

The passage of Scripture — " My kingdom is not 
of this world " (John xviii. 36) — is cited of late by 
political speakers, and by religious and secular pa- 
pers, to show that ministers must keep hands and 



TUPELO. 467 

tongues off the polities of the day. There never 
was a greater mistake and one leading to more disas- 
trous results to this or any other nation. This 
Scripture is Christ's answer to Pilate's question : 
" Art thou the king of the Jews ?" " Art thou a 
a king?" "Thou sayest that I am a king." "To" 
this end was I born, and for this cause came I into 
the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. 
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
Thus Christ confesses that he is king, but not of the 
order of Pilate or kings of this world. His kino-- 
dom is spiritual and eternal and sways a sceptre of 
universal dominion. "He does his pleasure in the 
armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of this 
world, there being none to stay his hand or say, 
what doest thou?" " My kingdom," says Christ, " is 
not of this world." It is not of the same nature — it 
is spiritual, holy, just, good, and from heaven. The 
kingdoms of this world are from below, "out of the 
sea and of the earth." The kingdom of Christ is 
"within men" in the kingdoms of this world, and 
is the "salt of the earth," " the light of the world." 
He came to bear witness to the truth, that is to 
authoritatively declare and enjoin upon men the 
will of God as the infallible rule of faith and prac- 
tice, in the church and state. There is no power but 
of him. " By me," he says, " kings rule and princes 
decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles; yea, 
all the judges of the earth." 

It i.~ impossible to separate religion and polities. 



468 TUPELO. 

that is the morals of civil government. God has 
married them, and " what God has joined together 
let not man put asunder." Religion is the chief 
corner-stone of this Republic. All our monuments, 
histories, orators, and ministers bear witness to that. 
Bishop Mcllvaine says : " The Christian religion is 
recognized as the religion of this nation." Webster 
says : " There is nothing we look for with more 
certainty than this principle, that Christianity is a 
part of the law of the land." Jesus Christ the great 
King and Head of the church, and " commander and 
leader of the nations " of the earth, is ascended to 
heaven to intercede for men, but he has left behind 
him the ministers of the gospel and people of God as 
the spiritual leaders and commanders of the people. 
This great king says to his ministers: "Ye shall be 
witnesses of me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and 
to the uttermost parts of the earth." Ministers 
must in Christ's stead authoritatively declare his 
will. When governments among men become un- 
just and tyrannize over the people, or when they set 
in motion for the sake of gain, or spoils of office, 
some infernal machine that deprives the citizens of 
his natural, inherent, God-given rights — life, liberty, 
and happiness — then the ministers of the gospel as 
"solemn legates of the skies," must "thunder and 
lighten" every Sabbath, as John Adams says the 
ministers of Philadelphia did in 1774, or Rev. 
Jacob Trout on the eve of the battle of Brandywine. 
He cried " Soldiers, I look around upon your familiar 



TUPELO. 469 

faces with strange interest. To-morrow morn ins: we 
go forth to battle. Need I tell you that your un- 
worthy minister will march with you, invoking the 
divine blessing of God's aid in the fight? Need I 
exhort you to fight the good fight — to fight for your 
homes, and your wives and your children?" 

Says Dr. Spring: " That great event in the his- 
tory of the world, the American Revolution, never 
would have been achieved without the influence of 
the pulpit." " The Puritan preachers," says Lossing, 
"promulgated the doctrine of civil liberty. By de- 
grees their pulpits became the tribune of the people, 
and on all occasions the Puritan ministers were the 
bold asserters of that freedom which the American 
Revolution established." The ministers of the 
Revolution were partisans, hateful partisans in the 
parlance of to-day. Says Thatcher, in his Military 
Journal, May, 1775: "The clergymen of New- 
England are almost without exception advocates of 
Whig principles ; there are few instances only of the 
separation of a minister from his people in conse- 
quence of a disagreement in political sentiment. The 
Tories censure in a very illiberal manner the preacher 
who speaks boldly for the liberties of the people," 
etc. The tyranny of England was the overshadow- 
ing curse of that day. 

What is the duty of the hour ? Let the 3,575,000 
Christian voters, headed by their ministers, look 
out from among all the people the kind of men that 
God wants to rule over men under him — " Able men, 



470 TUPELO. 

such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness"; 
and walk up to the polls and elect them. The 
Christian element in this land has the balance of 
power, and woe unto them if they fail to use it 
properly. Where are the great nations of antiquity ? 
H:>w did they fall ? By their own hands as national 
suicides. How shall we stay this nation on its course 
to ruin ? Strike down the drink traffic, Sabbath- 
breaking by great monopolies, and divide the public 
lands among their rightful owners. 

Miss Sarah Hosier. 

THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA, S. C, IN 1865. 

Who burnt Columbia is a mooted question. Many 
of the citizens of Columbia say that their city was 
burnt by Gen. Sherman. Messrs. J. J. Knox and 
Dr. Witherspoon, of Sumter, S. C, made this state- 
ment to me: "Wade Hampton, when retreating be- 
fore Gen. Sherman, fired the public property belong- 
ing to the Confederacy, which he could not remove, 
Jest it should fall into the hands of the approaching 
Federal army. The buildings in which this property 
was stored, while burning, communicated the fire to 
the city. Upon the arrival of Gen. Sherman and the 
surrender of the city to him, he made almost super- 
human efforts to save it from destruction, and all of 
the city that escaped owed its preservation to his 
clemency." 

Messrs. Witherspoon and Knox had no doubt that 
after Gen. Sherman's arrival some of his troops aided 



TUPELO. 471 

in promoting the conflagration, assisted by liberated 
Unionist prisoners. In confirmation of their state- 
ment they narrated this incident: 

"In 1861, Mr. Lemuel Lorimer strongly animad- 
verted upon the secession of South Carolina, and de- 
clared himself to bean unconditional Unionist. Soon 
a mob, led by Gen. Adams, ex-governor of S. C, and 
other prominent citizens of Columbia, seized the 
unfortunate Unionist, tied him to a post, and whipped 
him severely, after which they put upon him a coat 
of tar and feathers. Some one proposed to set him 
on fire. This was opposed by some, as he might 
rush into a store or some building and start a confla- 
gration. At this moment a northern bound train 
entered the depot. (Jen. Adams suggested that it 
would be well to send him North, among congenial 
spirits, and thus have all their enemies in front. 
This suggestion was approved by the majority. Mr. 
Lorimer was unceremoniously hustled aboard the 
train. Some now proposed to shoot him, and drew 
their revolvers for this purpose, since their victim 
refused to recant. Fearing that the lives of others 
might be endangered, they refrained from shooting. 
They then ordered a negro to go to him and collect 
the fare. Mr. Lorimer said, 'Put your hand in my 
pocket and take the money, my hands are besmeared 
and tied together, so that it is impossible for me to 
comply with their demand.' The colored man, at the 
instigation of the crowd, withdrew Mr. Lorimer's 
poeket-book, took from it ten dollars, and returned 



472 TUPELO. 

it. The train then started North, bearing this de- 
fenseless victim of Confederate wrath, who was indeed 
in a pitiable plight, but thankful to escape with life. 
" When Gen. Sherman entered Columbia, Mr. Lori- 
mer was an officer in his army. Mr. Lorimer's first 
enquiry after entering this doomed city was for Gen. 
Adams. He learned that he was not living. The 
others who had maltreated him were all put to death 
as soon as found. Not one was spared of those whom 
he remembered as guilty of the flagrant outrage upon 
his person. A life atoned for every lash he had re- 
ceived. A number of Unionists were incarcerated in 
prison in Columbia. They were under sentence of 
death. These the Federal army released. In their 
wrath they did not spare the burning city, but aided 
in its destruction. Mr. Lorimer, after destroying 
those who had so horribly abused him for his loyal 
sentiments, burnt their dwellings, and this aided 
materially in extending the conflagration." 

CHARLESTON, S. C, 1865. 

Thy sanctuaries are forsaken now, 
Deep mold and moss cling to thy fretted towers, 
Deep rents and seams where struggling lichens grow 
And no sweet voice of prayer at vestal hour, 
But voice of screaming shot and bursting shell, 
Thy deep damnation and thy doom foretell. 
The fire has left a pile of broken walls, 
And night hags revel in thy ruined halls. 



TUPELO. 47.3 

MEMORIAL DAY THE ADDRESS DELIVERED AT 

CHARITON, IOWA, BY REV. W. F. BARTHOLOMEW. 

Soldiers and Fellow Citizens: 

Toward the close of the war of the rebellion, the 
graves of some soldiers were visited by a few patri- 
otic Christian ladies, by whom they were strewed 
with sweet spring flowers. It was a simple act, sug- 
gested by a womanly impulse, and they little thought 
they were doing a thing which would so soon become 
a national observance. Within a few years the cus- 
tom had become so widespread, that, in 1868, John 
A. Logan issued an order from the head-quarters of 
the Grand Army of the Republic, setting apart the 
30th of May as a day to be thus observed through- 
out the nation, in honor of its dead. The order was 
soon ratified by many of the state legislatures, and 
by congress for the District of Columbia, making 
the day a legal holiday. In the spontaneous and 
widespread popularity of this Memorial Day, I see 
what is to me, full of hopefulness for the nation. 1 
see a necessity for the sentiments which these com- 
memorations express, and which they tend to culti- 
vate. I am aware that there are those among us who 
affect contempt for what they choose to call "mere 
'sentiment." But I insist that sentiment, so far from 
being a useless thing, is as important to us as rail- 
roads, or mines, or arms. The enthusiasms of the 
world are begotten, not by syllogisms, nor by statis- 
tics, but by what these people call sentiment. 



474 TUPELO. 

These sentiments are what make patriotism practical, 
the raising of armies and navies possible. Without 
them we should be but selfish individuals, and the 
state would be impossible. Edward Everett, plead- 
ing for the completion of Bunker Hill monument, 
said, " I am asked, 'What good will this monument 
do?' And I ask, What good does anything do? 
What is good? I say that generous and patriotic sen- 
timents, sentiments which prepare us to serve our 
country, are good — good, humanly speaking, of the 
highest order. It is good to have them, good to com- 
memorate them, good to encourage them." A coun- 
try that may one day need citizens who would die for 
it, had better encourage the spirit of her who was 
willing to break the precious alabaster box of spike- 
nard, for the sake of a sentiment, than foster the 
spirit of her practical-minded critic, who so soon sold 
his Master for the price of a slave. The decoration 
of these graves then, I understand to be not merely 
a beautiful ceremony, but also an educator in the 
truest elements of American citizenship. 

The impulse that called forth this observance was 
not a new impulse, nor one peculiar to the American 
people, but an impulse as old as the heart of man. 
All civilized nations have in their own ways done 
honor to their illustrious dead. The early Egyptians 
embalmed their bodies and entombed them in costly 
sarcophagi, and with them the records of their glory. 
The early Greeks, and other ancient peoples, exalted 
their heroes, and worshiped them as gods. Many of 



TUPELO. 475 

them they associated with the stars of night, where 
some of the most brilliant constellations yet bear their 
names. The Greeks and Romans raised monumental 
pillars, and covered them with the names of those 
who lost their lives in battle. One of these monu- 
mental records has come down to our day, containing 
the names of the men who fell at Potidaea. We find 
in ancient Athens memorial rites very similar to our 
own. They reach as far back as the battle of Marathon. 
Their burial place was the Keramikus — the most 
charming suburb of Athens — which stood on the in- 
tersection of the great thoroughfares from east, south, 
and west. Here they buried their soldiers who had 
been brought home at the public expense; and here 
they met annually to do them honor with offerings 
of flowers and orations of eulogy, much as we do to- 
day. Two of these funeral orations have come down 
to us — one from Lysias, and one from Pericles. 
That yoh may see how much the Greek heart and 
thought was like our own, I wish to quote a few 
sentences from the oration of Pericles. He says, 
"Before I praise the dead, I should like to point out 
by what principles of action we rose to power, and 
under what institutions and through what manner of 
life our nation became great." And in eulogy of the 
dead, he says, " Their loftiest praise has been already 
spoken ; for in magnifying the city I have magnified 
them, and men like them, whose virtues made her 
glorious. They ran away from the world of dis- 
honor; but on the battle field their feet stood fast. 



476 TUPELO. 

And in an instant, at the height of their fortune, 
they passed away from the scene, not of their fear, 
but of their glory." These words are as fit to be 
spoken here to-day, as in Athens twenty-five centuries 
ago. 

Of all peoples, we can least afford to be unmindful 
of our nation's dead. It is therefore most fitting that 
here, amid the vernal glories of the opening year, we 
should turn aside from the rushing current of events, 
and from the thronging cares which our prosperity 
has brought upon us, and from our hearts do honor 
to the men whose death made this prosperity possi- 
ble. It is not enough that their heroic deeds are 
recorded in books of history. 

" For though their names were graven on the sky, 
To be forever read by every eye," 

still the affection of a grateful, loving people would 
seek in some such way as this to give suitable ex- 
pression to the patriotic devotion it enkindles. No 
words of mine can fitly speak the eulogy demanded 
by this hour. And if eulogy were the whole duty 
of this occasion, it would seem to me more fitting 
that we should stand with bated breath and uncov- 
ered heads, about these graves, which appeal to us 
with a mute eloquence, more impressive far than 
speech. 

But the observance of this day is not for the good or 
pleasure of those whose graves we have decorated with 
flowers. They are careless of the offerings we bring. 
They are heedless to the praises w r e utter above them. 



TUPELO. 477 

These ceremonies are not for their sakes, but for our 
own. The dead clamor not for our recognition, but 
we cannot afford to withhold it. When a nation be- 
comes negligent of its dead, that nation will soon be 
neglected by its living. When a people cease to 
glory in their past, there will probably be little 
worthy of glory in their future. 

It is the purpose of this observance, not only to 
express patriotic gratitude and devotion, but also to 
quicken and intensify them. The palace walls at 
Versailles are hung with paintings representing all 
that is glorious and heroic in French history. One 
has said of them, "If I were emperor of the French, 
before I sent my soldiers to battle, I would march 
them through these galleries, and I think I should 
thus make them invincible." We stand in thought 
to-day before the heroism of the war. Let me point 
out some ways in which this occasion may be made to 
quicken and strengthen the patriotic sentiments of 
our people. 

This memorial service revives memories of the 
war. Twenty-three years have passed since the close 
of the war; so it has almost become an event of a 
past generation. These years have been too full of 
exciting events to allow men to live much in the 
past. A look backward to the close of the war 
reveals to us the wonderful progress this nation has 
made in a quarter of a century. It would not be in 
place here to dwell upon the details of this progress; 
but these have been years of activity, and not of re- 



478 TUPELO. 

flection on the past. Besides, those reminders of the 
war, at first so numerous, the maimed and crippled 
soldiers upon our streets, have become less and less 
frequent, as these enfeebled veterans have dropped 
into their graves before their time. The parents who 
sent sons to the war, are dead, or decrepit with age. 
The girls whose hearts went to the front with the 
" brave boys," are elderly matrons now, and the sol- 
dier's baby now has children of his own. A few 
among us to-day will cross these years by one leap 
of thought, and, neglectful of all the years have been, 
or brought to them, will live over again the days 
from '61 to '65 — the enlistment, the drill, the excite- 
ment of battle, the monotony of camp, and all the 
experiences of war which none can picture but he who 
has had them. These will come back to the soldier 
to-day as he stands by the graves of his comrades. 
Others will remember the loneliness when the boys 
had gone, the waiting for news, the suspense after 
battle, the reading long lists of names of killed and 
wounded, in search of one name, the anxiety for the 
boys in the hospital, or worse, in some southern 
prison. How these memories rush in upon us to-day 
— the waiting for news, the ebb and flow of feeling 
they brought, the peril of the situation, and the fears 
as to the outcome. Let us open wide the windows 
of our souls, and give these memories free play; and 
we shall be all the better for them. 

But this observance is not only fruitful in tender 
memories, but is potent also as an instructor. A new 



TUPELO. 4~9 

generation has come to manhood and citizenship since 
the war. A large majority of our people have no 
personal knowledge or recollection of its events. 
Among these are not less than two million voters. 
Very soon all the men who defended the nation, in 
its years of peril, will have dropped out of public 
life. Already the places of trust and power are 
passing into the hands of men who have paid no 
price for the nation's life. It has been thought that 
frequent times of peril are necessary to prevent the 
decay of patriotism. Rather let us keep onr people 
so familiar with our past perils, that patriotism shall 
not die. A written history has never been found 
sufficient for any people. The Hebrews were re- 
quired, at each returning season, with sprinkled blood, 
and staff in hand, to eat the hasty meal of bitter 
herbs, and unleavened bread, thus re-enacting the 
scenes of that historic night when their fathers es- 
caped from Egyptian bondage. Jesus provided for the 
writing of the Gospels, yet at the last hour he insti- 
tuted a simple feast, saying, "Do this in remembrance 
of me." So the church and the state have found a 
necessity for these memorial occasions in the fact that 
most people learn history in no other way. When 
Israel was commanded to keep the Passover, this was 
assigned as one of its uses: " When your children 
shall say unto you, 'what mean ye by this service?' 
then ye shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the Lord's 
Passover, who passed over the houses of the children 
«of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the first-born and 



480 TUPELO. 

delivered our houses.'" Men are ever debtors to the 
past, for those inspirations which make great futures. 
As the eager Elisha, gazing after the receding chariot, 
caught the mantle of the ascending prophet ; so by 
studiously regarding the past, we become heir to its 
spirit, and emulous of its achievement. Alexander 
the Great was fascinated by Homer's Iliad. When a 
boy, he slept with it under his pillow. When a 
young man he crossed the vEgean, and kneeling at 
the shrine of his illustrious ancestor, Achilles, he 
there gathered, we are told, his inspiration for his 
tour of Eastern conquest. So let America, year by 
year, gather her young men about the graves of her 
heroic dead, and there teach them the virtues that 
inspired their fathers in her time of peril. Tell them 
that 500,000 lives laid down, and as many more cut 
short by wounds and ill health, was the price paid 
for their peace and prosperity. Tell them of Shiloh 
and Vicksburg, of Gettysburg and the Wilderness, 
of Libby and Andersonville. If you would have 
men Milling to die for their country in the future, 
you must let them see that the nation appreciates and 
honors those who have died for her in the past. 

Let us learn here in the presence of these graves, 
how closely, and how necessarily, death and life are 
bound up together. There is no life that springs not 
forth from the darkness of death. Even these flowers, 
with which, as emblems of immortality, we have 
decorated these graves, were gathered from the sepul- 
bher of last vear's glorv — this is the law of nature. 



TUPELO. 481 

The chariot wheels of civilization have ever been 
lubricated with human blood; and gory battle fields 
have ever been the way marks of human progress — 
this is the law of civilization. Enter a yet higher 
realm. You hear him who is above all, say, "The 
hour is come that the Son of man shall be glorified." 
But how is he to be glorified? "Except a corn of 
wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone ; 
but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit." No truth 
is more historic than that of vicarious sacrifice — of 
some suffering, and dying, that others may live and 
be happy. "No man liveth unto himself, and no 
man dieth unto himself." 

Let us learn, then, as another lesson of this hour, 
that unselfishness, and generous public spirit are the 
conditions and measure of our usefulness — that, be- 
ing such debtors to the past, we have no right to live 
selfish lives — that he who does not contribute to the 
common weal, as he has received from it, goes to his 
grave a defaulter in trusts more sacred than funds 
and stocks. The debt we owe to the past, we are to 
pay to the future. Already, hands are stretched out 
to us, authorized to receive God's per cent on the 
blessings we enjoy. 

" Not to ourselves are we living; 

Not to ourselves do we die. 
Freely receiving and giving, 

Soul after soul marches by. 
Parts of one mighty procession, 

Stretching from Eden's first dawn, 

31 



482 TUPELO. 

On through long curves of progression,. 

'Til in the future 'tis gone — 
Gone from earth's ken, past heart-beat and breath 

Into the life that is miscalled death." 

No memorial service for the dead can be sincerely 
observed which does not more deeply impress us with 
the sacredness of the trusts they have left to our 
keeping. True honor to the dead soldier is closely 
bound up with conscientious fidelity to his surviving 
comrades. They are among us, maimed, crippled, 
sightless, bearing all sorts of disabilities as the result 
of their service in the war. As they drop into their 
graves from these disabilities, we deem them worthy 
of like honor to those who died in battle. Far more 
pleasing to them shall be the tokens of recognition 
and reward that are ministered to them while they are 
living, than honors when they are dead. It has 
been said that " Westminster Abbey and monumental 
Greenwood are the world's atttempt to atone by 
honors to the dead, for wrongs to the living." Let 
not Decoration Day come into this condemnation. 
There are those participating in these ceremonies who 
will live into a generation which shall regard with 
peculiar reverence the surviving soldier of the war 
of the rebellion. Are they worthy of less honor be- 
cause not now objects of curiosity? All honor then 
to these brave veterans who are still among us, as 
connecting links between the present and the past; 
and as one by one they go to join their comrades in 
the "silent land," may men arise to take their places, 



TUPELO. 483 

who will be as brave and true to the future as they 
have been to the past. 

But our heroic dead have bequeathed to us a trust 
more sacred still — more sacred to us than their mem- 
ories or their comrades, as it was more sacred to them 
than their lives. If these dead soldiers could speak 
to us from their graves, I think they would say, 
" We are not so careful that you should perpetuate our 
names, as that you shall guard the nation's honor 
for which we fought. We are not so much concerned 
that you should . cherish our memories, as that you 
shall cherish the principles for which we laid down 
our lives." There is cause for rejoicing in that the 
bitterness and animosity engendered by the war is so 
rapidly disappearing, and that we seem to be ap- 
proaching a national unity, never yet realized in the 
history of this country. Yet this very fact imperils 
the principles which were at issue during the war. 
I honor the bravery of the men who fought against 
us. I believe most of them were honest in their 
convictions. Yet we must remember that neither 
honesty in embracing convictions, nor bravery in de- 
fending them, can make men's convictions right, or 
their principles true. Passions cool, prejudices 
change with situation, men die, and are forgotten; 
but truths and principles are apart from all these, 
and do not die or change. A man's honesty may be 
sufficient apology for his espousal of a cause, but it 
does not make that cause right or excusable. 

The American people need to remember that the 



484 TUPELO. 

Trojans resisted a siege of ten years, and then fell 
before the stratagem of the wooden horse. It has 
been said that " Peace hath its victories, not less re- 
nowned than war." It has also its emergencies not 
less perilous, and its defeats not less disastrous. Let 
us beware, lest the scheming politician, in his selfish 
lust for place and gain, shall deceive us into a sur- 
render of that which an armed host was unable to 
wrest from us. A nation, so valiant upon the battle 
field should stand invincible against every foe — upon 
the moral and political field as well as on the fields 
of war. 

I do not forget that the spirit and sentiments for 
which I am now pleading are so well guarded and 
emphasized by the two distinguished societies under 
whose auspices we have met to-day — the Grand Army 
of the Republic and the Woman's Relief Corps. 
The honorable place which public opinion has ac- 
corded these societies shows how widely the popular 
heart responds to these sentiments. I only ask the 
perpetuity of these conditions, and we shall thus ren- 
der permanent the fruits of the war. 

At the close of the war, when the armies of the 
rebellion had surrendered, it was well known that 
the surrender did not carry with it the feeling of dis- 
loyalty among the southern people. At that moment 
a vexing problem presented itself to thoughtful men 
— how can a people so divided in their convictions, 
convictions intensified by the sacrifices of war, ever 
again become so united in heart as to be in fact one 



TUPELO. 485 

people? We now stand far enough from the war to 
foresee the solution of this problem. One evening, 
while the two armies Mere facing each other across 
the Rappahannock, the military bands on each side 
of the river were rendering their favorite national 
airs. "When the Confederate bands played "Dixie/' 
the southern soldiers cheered. Then the Union 
bands played "Hail Columbia," and the Union army 
cheered. After the bands had thus answered each 
other back and forth, some band began playing 
"Home Sweet Home." As soon as the tune was 
detected, all the bands joined, and when it was fin- 
ished both armies together set up a shout that made 
the valleys ring. This is a picture of the way in 
which this problem is being solved. Not by accusa- 
tion, reply, and rejoinder, but by the timely on-com- 
ing of issues and enterprises, apart from the matters 
in dispute, and of common interest to both sections 
of the country. "With the return of peace came a 
time of unparalleled activity. 

Vast and fertile domains invited settlement; great 
commercial and manufacturing enterprises sprang 
into existence; marvelous inventions with surprising 
rapidity revolutionized the mechanical agencies of 
the country. A new generation has come to the 
front identified with these new conditions, rather 
than with the old. In this I find both explanation 
and prophecy of the fast approaching unification of 
the two, once hostile sections of this country. You 
have but to recur to history, to be reminded how 



486 TUPELO. 

differently other conditions might have affected us. 
You know how strifes of far less moment have pro- 
tracted their bitterness through centuries. You 
know how the petty feuds between the Scottish clans 
were passed as cherished heirlooms from one gener- 
ation to another. When I consider the character of 
the issues which divided the North and South, and 
produced the war, the long period through which 
they were matured and strengthened, and the tenacity 
with which they were fought over, it is not so surpris- 
ing to me that there have been some displays of the 
old-time bitterness, since the war, as that there have 
been so few of them. I find cause for rejoicing and 
confidence in the fact that twenty-three years have 
done so much to cool the passions and unite the hearts 
of the old combatants. 

If we turn away from this observance with, a 
higher appreciation of what this nation has cost, and 
hence, of what it is worth, with a deeper sense of our 
indebtedness to the past, and so of our responsibility 
to the future, and with a truer purpose to act well 
our part, this day will not have been spent in vain. 



There is a land of every land the pride. 
Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside, 
Where brighter suns dispense serener light, 
And rnilder moons iniparadise the night. 
Oh, thou shalt find howe'er thy footsteps roam 
That land thy country, and that land thy home. 



TUPELO. 487 



MEMORIAL SERMON. 



The following memorial sermon was delivered by 
Rev. W. F. Slocum, pastor of the Bethany Baptist 
church, of Wooster, on Sunday morning, May 30, 
188G, on which occasion Given Post, No. 133, G. A. 
II., and Hancock Camp, No. 100, Sons of Veterans, 
were present in a body : 

Luke xvi. 7: " And how much owest thou ? " 

THE DEBT OF THE LIVING TO THE DEAD. 

For the most part I shall confine my remarks to 
that subject made so significant by the return of this 
season of the year, viz. — " The debt we owe to the 
departed heroes of our country." 

The relation of the living to the dead is one of 
large and various meaning. We are the heirs of all 
the generations gone. We inherit their works, their 
examples, as we do their names and dwelling- 
places. We are their successors. We are here 
to reap that which we have not sown ; other men 
have had conflicts and labors and we are entered 
into their labors. They prepared for us largely 
the conditions and pursuits of the lives we are 
enjoying to-day. We are their pupils. They teach 
us grand lessons of both humility and of cour- 
age; for we learn of them both how small and how 
great we are. Lying in the dust with which our 
own is soon to be mingled, they rebuke our pride; 
yet they save us from a feeling of nothingness and 



488 TUPELO. 

from brutish views of life by reminding us of the 
dignity, the indestructible worth, and the undying 
power of every good and earnest deed. From the 
heavenly heights they send us down sweet messages 
of cheer, as we toil along the journey of our brief 
day. 

" Mortal," they softly say, " peace to thy heart ! 
We, too, yes, mortal, have been as thou art ; 
Hope-lifted, doubt-depressed, seeing in part. 
Tried, troubled, tempted, sustained as thou art." 

This relation signifies obligation to them. We 
are their debtors ; and that not only in an account 
that cannot be paid, but also in duties that we can 
render. It is to perform one of these duties that 
you are now gathered here, and will visit the silent 
city of the dead to-morrow. 

Our obligations to those whose graves we shall to- 
morrow visit and crown with garlands of honor is 
peculiar. It arises from the fact that they volun- 
tarily laid down their lives in the public cause. It 
appeals to us all as citizens and as patriots. They 
died for us, and their dying was the cost of benefits 
we live to partake. It requires us to guard their 
names from oblivion, and to make the story of 
their sacrifice, as a power in the world, perpetual. 
And while the whole nation is sacredly bound to do 
this, it is especially fitting that you, their comrades, 
should be foremost in the work. For in an especial 
manner you were in fellowship with these heroes; 
yes, and are in fellowship with them still. To you 



TUPELO. 489 

they will always be what they cannot be to any who 
were not permitted to share with them, as you did, 
the days, and scenes and experiences that made you 
comrades. You feel that the glorious fraternity of 
the camp, the march, the battle, the trenches, the 
vigils that wearied out the stars, is not one that can 
be dissolved by death, and that those of your own 
companions in war who have halted and lain down 
in the bivouac no earthly trumpet can disturb, are 
yet of you, and so forevermore will be ! 

But appropriate as is the tribute of tender and 
sacred recollections, which we are to pay their mem- 
ory now, it is by no means the only tribute they 
claim at our hearts and hands as the most precious? 
It does not discharge our full obligations. There is 
something far more binding upon us than this or any 
similar act of fidelity. If we would truly honor 
these illustrious dead we must gird up our loins in a 
strong purpose to see to it that their work for the 
world and humanity does follow them ; else we are 
not worthy to call them our saviours, still less to 
survive them. Though year after year, for all the 
future, we strew their graves with flowers ; though 
we carve their names in the imperishable stone; 
though immortal words embalm their deeds, all will 
be hollow and empty and insufficient unless we take 
up their fallen mantle to wear it sacredly — a high 
and solemn trust — till we, too, go the way of all the 
earth. The tremendous facts that surround every 
life are enough to make it earnest, but here an 



490 TUPELO. 

especial inspiration, one of the strongest lhat can be 
sent upon man, is given to stir us to noble intensity 
in action. It is the inspiration which conies from 
the thought that these men and comrades — the most 
beloved sons of a great republic — poured their blood 
on liberty's altar as an atonement for transgressions 
against humanity, and that a nation might be saved. 
The Spartan band of Leonidas at the Pass of Ther- 
mopylae were not more heroic and self-sacrificing ; 
Curtius, who leaped into the yawning gulf to save 
with his own life his nation's life, was not more 
daring. Do we not owe them, therefore, the hom- 
age we so willingly render to-day, and much more 
beside. They were not only patriotic and brave and 
daring, but they were martyrs also. The support- 
ers of a religion gave their lives for a principle. 
These martyrs of patriotism gave their lives for an 
idea. It was the grand idea of American nation- 
ality that inspired them to sacrifice, and transformed 
them from peaceful citizens into patriotic heroes. 
Their language to us to-day is, " Hear us, ye living 
comrades, who so lately pressed our hands ! and you 
neighbors, friends, and citizens of this great Repub- 
lic ! We died while the blood was leaping in the 
pulses of our prime. It is due us that in you our hope 
shall be fulfilled. We suffered ; let your steps never 
falter in the face of trial. We laid our young heads 
down ; we gave our lives ; give yours freely, 
wholly, purely, to the defence of that which is noble, 
worthy, and right. You owe it to us and also to 



TUPELO. 4 ( J1 

yourselves, and to your God, to complete the work 
which we have begun. Bending from the heavens 
above as they plead with us to-day to be faithful and 
good citizens, to be just, yet merciful ; to put aside 
all hatred and uncharitableness, to guard our liber- 
ties with holy zeal, and always to remember at how- 
great a cost the nation kept its liberty. 

Ignoble, thrice ignoble, shall we be if we are found 
to care for ease, fearful of hardship. We shall dis- 
honor their memories if Ave prove faithless to their 
example. Let us then dedicate ourselves to the un- 
finished work they have thus far so nobly carried 
on. Let us honor their memories by an increased 
devotion to the cause for which they gave the last 
full measure of devotion. Let us highly resolve 
that the dead shall not have died in vain. 

And know this, that if the spirit which moves us 
to strew the hero's grave with floral offerings is as 
perishable as the flowers themselves, the offerings 
will prove of little permanent value to the living or 
the dead. The memorial service of any year will be a 
most shameless, wanton mockery, if our souls are not 
filled with that high and holy resolve which in- 
spired them. The dead, with stout hearts, fought 
with patriotic zeal while in life against their coun- 
try's foes — against the enemies of liberty and hu- 
manity. 

I repeat, we shall dishonor their memories if we 
prove faithless to their example. 

While their lives ebbed out on the blood v field of 



492 TUPELO. 

battle, or they died more slowly of wounds, want, or 
disease in hospital or prison, their country remained 
a great beacon light of liberty — the last hope of free- 
dom to the oppressed. 

We chant the story of their greatness by singing 
to the world of the deeds accomplished, successes 
gained, and the results obtained through their per- 
sonal sacrifices. 

But for the uncounted number of the dead and 
their living comrades, the government of the people, 
by the people, and for the people, would have per- 
ished from the earth. The great Webster said : " No 
a<re will come in which the American Revolution will 
appear less than it is — one of the greatest events in 
human history." The second war for freedom when 
measured by the principles at issue, the numbers en- 
gaged, the battles fought, the blood spilled, the lives 
lost, the supreme moral grandeur of the final tri- 
umph, and the glory incident to the results attained, 
strips all semblance of prophecy from the statement 
that no age will come in which the recent great Amer- 
ican Rebellion will appear less than it is — the great 
event in human history. 

There are before me men (and women, too) who 
have seen rebellion face to face — have seen it in 
its power and might ; have Avitnessed it in its first 
blush of defiance and hope ; have seen it in exulta- 
tion of temporary success and joy ; have seen its sul- 
len perseverance and strength ; have seen it in 
desperation and despair ; have seen it in its final 



TUPELO. 193 

overthrow and destruction. Yea, they have beheld 
more — they have seen the black national crime of 
human slavery, the prime cause of the rebellion, 
wiped out forever and rendered no longer possible 
under the mantle of our free constitutional govern- 
ment. They have witnessed both civilization and 
Christianity move forward and ascend higher. The 
rebellion was not all an evil if we garner well and 
preserve the good fruits born of the victories won 
both on the field of battle and in the forum of leg- 
islation. 

But for the Rebellion and its defeats we should still 
have a country, one-half of which would be teeming 
with millions of God's people wearing the yoke and 
galling fetters of slavery under the name of consti- 
tutional liberty. But for the Rebellion, liberty to 
these millions would still be a lying mockery. 

But for the Rebellion, there would have been a 
dominant part of the citizens of our Republic who 
would have continued to disobey the divine com- 
mand : " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread ; " and they would be yet engaged in eating 
bread earned by the sweat of the face of their unfor- 
tunate and still untutored black brethren. 

But for the Rebellion, civilization and Christianity 
would have stood still in at least one-half of the 
territory of this Union. But for the complete over- 
throw of the Rebellion, two flags would have floated 
over the inhabitants of a divided country, and at 
least one new nation would have been in being, hav- 



49 1 TUPELO. 

ing for its primal object the preservation and perpet- 
uation of human slavery. 
Truly may it be said : 

" O, not in vain our martyrs sighed 
And not in vain our heroes died." 

Keeping in view the importance and sublimity of 
the recent great struggle, as viewed in the light of 
the present, let us assume to plant ourselves in the 
afternoon of the next century, and observe, not so 
much the events as the results of the war. In doing 
this we must assume that reasonable progress in re- 
finement, the arts, and christian civilization will 
continue. 

The historian of that day, in the light of such 
progress, will accurately measure the effect of the 
triumphs, and justly judge of the deeds done and the 
men who participated in them. 

Then the true distinction between patriotism and 
disloyalty will be made; then those who have believed 
or now believe in or excuse human slavery will be 
properly classified ; then those who fought against 
slavery and for universal constitutional liberty will 
be awarded the true patriot's place. 

While it may be for this generation to forgive 
those who assailed the free institution of a govern- 
ment of the people, it will be for him to portray the 
truth of history and honor those who unfurled their 
banners in the cause of liberty. 

Then will the Union dead be honored as those 
who fought and died to preserve their country a 



TUPELO. 495 

" beacon 01 liberty'' to all mankind. Then lisp- 
ing infants will be taught to chant the story of their 
fame. Then will be depicted in glowing colors the 
long suffering, lofty purposes, heroic bearing, and 
noble spirit of those who fell doing battle in freedom's 
cause. 

" That cause in which we waved the sword on high, 
And swore with her to live, for her to die. " 

This is not a fitting occasion to utter words of re- 
proach of the living or the dead ; nor is it proper to 
ignore the broad distinction between the patriot and 
traitor. The misguided dead who then fell fighting 
for disunion and slavery may be spoken of tenderly ; 
also the living who fought in the same cause, who 
when Appomattox came, in good faith accepted the 
verdict rendered. Mercy and charity demand this 
much but no more. A tribute to bravery alone is idle 
and empty. Heroic deeds of bravery and daring, to 
be commended, must be coupled with patriotism, love 
of country, or some achievements in the interest of 
humanity. Men who merit honor and commemora- 
tion when dead, achieve success and perform deeds 
of valor and renown in a good and holy cause. 

Devotion to sound principle and good works in 
peace or war commands the approbation of the wise 
and good. Those who fought and fell for national 
integrity and freedom and equality of all men before 
the law will be loved and adored through all time. 

Had the French Marshal Moreau fallen at IIo- 
henlinden at the head of a French army, and not at 



496 TUPELO. 

Dresden, fighting with the combined despotisms of 
his country's enemies against France and for her dis- 
memberment, lie would have had a nation of people 
to honor and adore his name and perpetuate his fame. 
Had Arnold fallen at Saratoga and been spared his 
fall at West Point, his bravery and renown would 
have been placed alongside of Warren and other 
distinguished patriot dead of the war of the Revolu- 
tion. 

Had Jefferson Davis fallen at Buena Vista he 
would have been spared a traitor's fame and the 
humiliation of Irwinsville, and his name would have 
been registered among the lovers of his country. 
Had Robert E. Lee paid the penalty of devotion to 
his country at Mexico's capital he would have been 
remembered in future years as one who never deserted 
his country's flag in the hours of her greatest peril." 

In our late war there was a distinction between 
the living who fought for and those who fought 
against the Union, and death does not obliterate it. 
He who sought the Nation's ruin is not equal in our 
hearts with him who staked all in her defense. 

We have spoken thus of the dead, their achieve- 
ments, their honor, their true glory, and rendered to 
them a full meed of praise, in order that with gar- 
lands of love and devotion we may crown their labors 
and draw new inspiration from their life and heroic 
death. 

The history of all nations teaches us that frequent 
recurrence to the principles which animated their 



tii-elo. 497 

patriots in times of peril is essential to the preserva- 
tion and perpetuation of the results of their grand 
achievements. "We, the living, arc called upon by the 
same high obligation to preserve and perpetuate the 
results of these achievements as were the dead in their 
time called upon for their accomplishment. 

When danger threatens we should imitate their 
high example. 

Imbued with their patriotism, their love of consti- 
tutional liberty and the spirit of nationality, let us 
transmit these qualities to our posterity. 

Memory with averted face turns sadly back to a 
hundred battle fields, and as I recall (as best one can 
who took no active part therein) how the dead came 
trooping back with gory locks and faces marble white, 
to reinspire our hearts with courage for the doing of 
the right. How the curtains of their low green tents 
open outward, heedless of Whittier's sweet verse, 
and surrender up their precious charge ! I see them 
now, their immortal raiment on, and mingling in our 
prayers and tears ; they bid you keep alive in your 
hearts no malice and hatred toward the erring, but 
ip.f'ailing faith in the power of truth to prevail. As 
they were true and faithful in the days of sacrifice, 
they bid you to be true and faithful in the day of a 
new consecration. As they died, so they ask us t<> 
live, that the continent may bloom with an ampler 
freedom, and the age unfold a higher civilization. 

Let us one and all heed the voices that speak t<» us 

to-day from more than human lips ! Soon the floW- 

0.7 



498 TUPELO. 

ers that you will scatter on the hero-brother's grave 
will fade and mingle with the sod they cover, their 
beauty and fragrance lost to sight and sense. Soon 
the sun will gild new scenes, another "Decoration 
Day" with all its sweet recollections will have gone. 
Its story told, and its sacred page securely clasped 
forever. 

As the work of love and devotion closes with the 
morrow's sun, and we turn again for another year to 
the common duties of life with renewed pledges and 
devotion to our country filling our hearts, let us re- 
member that our Nation, though proud and mighty 
among the nations of the world, is the only truly free 
Republic to which the oppressed of all lands turn their 
•eyes, and also to remember that to perpetuate this 
love and devotion to freedom is our great calling. 

In the discharge of this duty you will be called 
upon to enter other battle fields than those where duty 
called in 1861. Fields where new dangers are to be 
faced and few worldly inspirations to urge you to 
victory. Battle fields where the soldier fights single- 
handed, alone, in the dark, with an invisible enemy, 
an enemy whose strength he has not measured, but fears 
it may be greater than his own. Such battles are 
most dreadful. 

Battles where blood is shed are but comparatively 
rare occurrences in the world's history, but these 
bloodless battles, in which hearts struggle and break, 
or else, sustained by an unfaltering trust in the 
Great Commander, gain victories, are a continuous 



TUPELO. 490 

succession. Every day sees such battles. Never a 
night falls in which myriads are not drawn out in 
contest. Without arc fightings, within are fears. 

The character of the enemies to be met on these 
new battle fields is known to you all. The world, 
the flesh, and the devil, the fascinations and allurements 
that lie about us, float in the atmosphere, lurk in the' 
darkness, gleam in the sunshine, "the world"; the 
impulses, passions, and habits that dwell in the flesh ; 
the wicked thoughts, the false reasoning, the empty 
hopes that are put into the mind by the father of lies 
and of devils — these are the desperate enemies which 
one has to meet. 

There is no such thing as going on toward heaven and 
God without meeting them. Diabolians, they watch 
the entrances to the King's highway. They dog the 
steps of the King's servants. They shoot their arrows, 
sometimes at random, sometimes well aimed, at those 
who are struggling upward. 

Face to face here to-day I know that every earnest 
soitl wants to learn how to conquer these enemies, 
and you ask me, if I know anything about it, to tell 
you; for you have had your struggles, and are still 
having them. 

Where is the armory in which I can find the 
weapons to overcome these giants? 

When David was going out to meet Goliath of 
(iath, Saul, the king, put on him his own helmet and 
coat of mail and girded his great sword upon the 
boy's thigh, but the shepherd lad said, " I cannot go 



500 TUPELO. 

with these." He went without theni, saying to the 
boastful giant, "I come to thee in the name of the 
Lord of Hosts, this clay will the Lord deliver thee 
into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine 
head from thee." And he did it. 

Victor Hugo, after describing the battle of Water- 
loo, makes this comment upon Wellington's victory: 
"Was it possible that Napoleon should win this 
battle? We answer no? Why? Because of Wel- 
lington? Bluchcr? No! Because of God — Napo- 
leon had been impeached before the Infinite and his fall 
was decreed. He vexed God." This the reply of 
faith to that sneer of self-confidence, "God favors the 
heaviest battalion," and it is more than that. Itis Paul's 
declaration over again, "Thanks be unto God which 
givcth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

In this thrilling sentence we find the answer to 
your soul's anxious question. God can give, and has 
given, the victory to those who give themselves to 
Him and who put their trust in him. Believe it 
and take therefrom the comfort and encouragement 
you need ! 

The graves of our dead heroes remind us that there 
is an end to our mortal life. Then are we summoned 
to bring the treasures we have harvested and lay them 
at the Great Commander's feet. Every talent must 
be surrendered up, and the increase we have made, 
and out of the ground of sloth and sin must we dig 
every napkin wherein we have foolishly hid away 
any gift. With saddened countenance the dissipated 



• TUPELO. 501 

prodigal will wander back from his husks and swine, 
and from his plenteous acres the faithful husbandman 
will go laden with bountiful sheaves. 

No one will then sorrow that he manfully walked 
the path of duty, though he trod with torn and bloody 
feet. 

Be ours the way, thorny as it may be, that leads 
us to an immortal crown. Be ours the way, though 
it leads straight through Gethseniane's garden, and 
past Calvary's Cross, that gives us the Great Com- 
mander's plaudit — " Well done !" To-day, men and 
women who seek the Eternal City, behold a lofty 
pile, which covers many a rod of earth, and lifts its 
lofty dome high in air, beneath whose glittering cross 
worshipers reverently bow their heads and offer up 
their silent prayers of old; mighty genius, gathering 
the stone from the quarry, and fitting them into form, 
wrought out its beauteous proportions, and treading 
the city's busy streets he caught the models where- 
with to fresco the fabric's towering walls. Changing 
the beggar into a giant, and the flower-girl into an 
angel, his brush fastened them forever on dome and 
ceiling; and there they stand, their radiant beauty 
grateful to eyes that wander from every quarter of 
the habitable earth. And there that venerable pile, 
caught up from neighboring fields, will remain, to 
astonish and delight as generations come and go. But 
above and about us towers a national character (a 
nobler Vatican or St. Peter's than Raphael's brush 
could paint or Angelo's genius plan), lifting high its 



502 TUPELO. 

mighty dome and spreading wide its arches, the crea- 
tures of no one time or age. In the building of this 
we each have a part, a duty to perform. Out of the 
common events of our common lives, out of the con- 
flicting passions and emotions God puts into human 
hearts, out of the thoughts and desires He puts in 
human brains, what pictures may we not paint, 
beautiful evermore in the sight of man, and grateful 
to the eye of Him who paints the meadow with its 
loveliness, and inspires the genius who uses the brush 
and the chisel? 

Long centuries ago in that city made holy by the 
feet of Him who brought glad tidings, there arose, as 
if by magic, the temple built by the Danite widow's 
skillful son. Away off on Lebanon's shaded sides 
the rough woodman swung his ax. Along Joppa's 
wild castles the raftsman plied his heavy oar. In 
deep caverns the mystic craftsman squared his huge 
blocks of stone, and up the rugged pathway sweating 
oxen bore the trophies of the Hebrew Mecca. So in 
solemn silence the temple daily grew until the fame 
thereof spread around the world. In this way goes 
on the Nation's life. Your character and mine, the 
work we do in our several places, the lives we live in 
lofty mountain air or by lowly river, the characters 
we form out of the wood or stone, are all but parts 
in the great mosaic of our country's temple wall. 
Oh, let us then seek to build into that structure 
the material that shall outlast the asres, knowing; 
that this is the debt we owe those who purchased 



TUPELO. 503 

with their lives the blessings we as citizens to-day 
enjoy. 

" When the long years have rolled slowly away, 
E'en to the dawn of earth's funeral day, 
When at the Archangel's trumpet and tread, 
Rise up the laces and forms of the dead ; 
When the great world its last judgment awaits, 
When the blue sky shall swing open the gates, 
And our long columns march silently through, 
Past the great Captain for final review, 
Then from the blood that has (lowed for the right 
Crowns shall spring upward, untarnished and bright. 
Then the glad ears of each war-niartyred son 
Proudly shall hear the glad tidings—'' Well done." 



Galesburg, Knox Co., III., June 21, 1888. 
Rev. John H.Aughey, Mountain Top, Luzerne Co., Pa.: 
Dear Sir — Yours of recent date was received in 
due course of mail. I am glad to hear from you. 
I was at a soldiers' reunion two years ago, and while 
there met our old friend and fellow-prisoner, Alex- 
ander Spear, of Ellisvillc, Fulton Co., 111. I was 
very glad to meet him, as we had not met before 
since we were paroled. I have forgotten whether I 
told you what General Jordan said to me when lie 
came into prison the morning of your escape, lie 
came up to me as I stood on the floor. He said, 
"How did that preacher get away".' What do you 
know about his escape?" I did as the rot of the 
prisoners did. I denied knowing anything about 
your escape, either as to the time of it, <>r the man- 



504 TUPELO. 

ner by which it was effected. He said, " God Al- 
mighty helped hi in get away, for no living white 
man could." After studying a minute he said, " Did 
you render him any aid in liberating him from the 
chain?" I replied, "I am not God Almighty." 
He then rejoined the officers. They sent out two 
companies of cavalry with blood-hounds, with strict 
orders to leave you wherever they found you. 

Please present my kind regards to your wife and 
family. I think of you and your wife often. You, 
as you were standing in the center of Tupelo prison, 
declaring that you will run past the guards and take 
the risk of making your escape, or die in the at- 
tempt, which you said you would prefer to the cer- 
tainty of death on the scaffold in a few days ; and 
her, overwhelmed with sorrow at your prolonged 
absence. I am now very busy at work for the city. 

How terrible is war. As my mind reverts to the 
past, I almost feel like saying with Cowper — 

" Arms through the vanity and brainless rage 
Of those that bear them, in whatever cause, 
Seem most at variance with all moral good, 
And incompatible with all serious thought." 

An offensive war is always wrong. A war in de- 
fense of country and liberty alone is justifiable. 
Please answer at your earliest convenience. 

Your sincere friend and fellow-prisoner, 

John J. DeGrummostd. 
Late Private Co. C, 47th Regt., 111. Vol. Inf. 



TUPELO. 505 

P. S. — Howell Trogdon, our fellow-prisoner at 
Tupelo, wrote me that when you were pastor of the 
Fairmount church in Saint Louis, Mo., he lived near 
you, and saw you almost every day. Trogdon held 
the guard, seated on the threshold of our prison, in 
conversation while you made your final eseape. 

Can you give me Trogdon's address? I have some 
good news to write him. Yours truly, 

John J. DeGeummond. 

THE PURITY OF THE BALLOT. 

The revelations which have been made in the 
course of the last two weeks in the tally-sheet-forgcry 
trials at Indianapolis and Columbus, in addition to 
the disclosures which startled tlfe country as they 
were brought out in the trial of similar cases in 
Chicago not very long since, should arouse a public 
sentiment that will no longer tolerate such iniquities. 
Too long have the American people permitted the 
great crime of tampering with the ballot box to go 
unpunished. Treason has been pronounced the 
highest offense that can be committed against a gov- 
ernment; its aim is, not to cripple or embarrass the 
ruling power, but to overthrow it; the traitor strikes 
at the very life of the government. In a republic 
like our own, where the will of the people constitu- 
tionally expressed is the supreme law, he who by 
force or fraud sets aside and defeats that will is guilty 
of this very crime. He has substituted creatures of 
his own choosing in seats of authority, to make or 



506 TUPELO. 

execute our laws, instead of those whom the sover- 
eign power had selected. The penalty attached to 
treason in every civilized country is death ; and if 
there be no other way of effectually preventing all 
tampering with the ballot, this crime should be sim- 
ilarly punished. 

If this seems to any one too severe a penalty, let 
him reflect upon the peril in which such criminals 
might involve our country. Suppose that in the 
presidential election next November, it should be 
clearly established that the successful candidate 
owed that success to fraud in the returns, or violence 
in preventing a free ballot, is it to be supposed that 
the defrauded party would quietly submit to a pal- 
pable outrage upon their rights? On the contrary 
there is every reason to fear that we might be once 
more embroiled in the horrors of internal strife, not 
sectional but partisan in its character. Surely the 
miscreants who for their own vile purposes would 
coolly occasion the crisis that might lead to such a 
calamity, should themselves be put beyond the power 
of ever committing such a crime again. — Herald and 
Presbyter, Cincinnati, O. ' 



There is no danger now that the sentiment of pa- 
triotism will fail in the hearts of the American peo- 
ple. How suddenly in the hour of need it arose ! 
Plow it swelled from unsuspected fountains ! The 
wisest statesman, the most sagacious politician did 
not predict nor suspect the possibility of such a surge. 

• 



TUPELO. 507 

It came with a Bay of Fundy sweep and speed ! 
Nay, more marvelous than that. It was akin 
rather to an earthquake we read of sometimes in a 
tropic country. Just at the outbreak of treason, 
there was, as you know, a strange stillness in the air, 
heavy and oppressive. The sea was listless. The 
beaches wore bare. It seemed as though mammon 
worship had paralyzed manhood. And then the vol- 
canic moment came, the rumble, the roar the up- 
heaval of the very bed of the sea under the flame of 
the country's maddened heart. And the billow rose 
— the moral billow — along the line of a continent, 
and it rolled from that) calm ocean, dark, massive, 
sublime, till its edge whitened with sacred wrath, 
and the track of its tremendous dash is marked by 
the broken forts, the flying hosts, the submerged 
banners of the rebellion. Disloyalty to the imperial 
republic will never care to tempt the anger of that 
sleeping deep. — Rev. W. J. Day, Ashley, Pa., from 
Decoration Day address, 1888. 



My country, if a wretch should e'er arise 
Out of thy countless sons who would curtail 
Thy freedom, dim thy glory — while he lives 
May all earth's people curse him for, for all 
Hast thou secured the Messing — and if one 
Exist who would not arm for liberty, 
Be he too cursed living, and when dead 
Let him be buried downward, witli his face 
Looking below, and o'er his coward grave 
Let no fragrant flowers e'er be strewn. 



508 TUPELO. 

FACTS FOR THE CHURCH TO THINK OVER. BY 

RICHARD H. ALLEN, D.D., PITTSBURG, PA. 

First. — The sad and helpless condition of the freed- 
men, growing as it did out of slavery, lies at our 
door. The negroes in God's providence were brought 
to our country, and we enslaved them. American 
slavery was instituted and created by the American 
government and sanctioned by the American Church, 
at the very time, too, that we were persuading our- 
selves and proclaiming to other nations of the earth 
that all men by nature "are free and equal." In 
God's providence they were brought here, and when 
they asked for bread we gave them a stone, and when 
they asked for fish we gave them a scorpion. 

Second. — Their illiteracy lies at our door. By 
law we closed every avenue of intellectual improve- 
ment. The man who dared to teach them to read 
was liable to imprisonment, fines, or stripes. We 
thus legalized illiteracy. 

Third. — The want of a true morality, their want of 
virtue and low estimate of the sacredness of the mar- 
riage tie, lie at our door. "We gave them in marriage, 
but there was not a legal marriage among; them — 
not a marriage recognized as legal by Church or state; 
and yet with these loose marriages we took them into 
the Church and admitted them to the Lord's table. 
For all this God will hold us responsible, and before 
it is too late let us right the wrong as far as we can. 

Fourth. — The negro is one of our most improvable 



TUPELO. 509 

races. In the face of a wretched race-prejudice they 
are making their way to prosperity, intellectually 
and physically. In the state of Georgia alone they 
own 583,000 acres of laud. They are paying taxes 
on $91,000,000 worth of property, and are printing 
and publishing 109 newspapers. 

Remember that the negro is a man, with a man's 
instincts, a man's passions and powers. He has 
shown and maintained his manhood on eighty-three 
battle-fields, which were stained with his blood in 
our great civil war. Help him to assert his manhood 
still further, if by worthy behavior he can win a 
place or position of honor and trust. Do not turn 
away from him because God has been pleased to give 
him a darker skin than yours. Give him a brother's 
hand, and bid him God-speed in his efforts for a higher 
and nobler life. He is a man, and we beg you give 
him a man's chance, and he will take care of himself, 
and he will help you take care of the Church and 
the nation. 

THE SOUTHERN UNIONIST. 

" Faithful found 
Among the faithless, faithful he # 

Among innumerable false, unmoved, 
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified 
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal, 
Nor numbers nor example with him wrought 
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind 

Though single." 



510 TUPELO. 

THE KU-KLUX. THE STORY OF CAPTAIN ROBERT 

W. BOONE. 

Facts about the Ku-Klux and their outrageous 
doings startle us most when they come to us in the 
shape of a personal narrative. When a reliable man 
can say, " I have seen these things," and can give 
every incident of events that have only been outlined 
in the newspapers, his evidence becomes interesting 
to the people. 

Perhaps no man is better qualified to speak of the 
secret societies of the South, their nature, their aims, 
and their doings than Captain Robert W. Boone, now 
in this city. This will appear if we glance at his 
career, certainly one of the most remarkable shaped 
by the war and by the events which followed in the 
South. 

Capt. Boone is a native of North Carolina, and a 
great-grandson of Daniel Boone. He was about 
fifteen years of age when the Carolinas seceded, and 
he made his mark by tearing down a rebel flag 
which had been raised by his brother, a captain in 
the Confederate service. Encouraged by his mother, 
he stood firm in his course as a Union man, left the 
State, n^ide his way to Kentucky, and in a few weeks 
entered the secret service of the United States army 
— a department that became so famous and so useful 
in the army operations in Kentucky and Tennessee. 

The old Boone instinct made this boy a good scout, 
a good pilot, and a good spy. So efficient was he 
that after the siege of Knoxvillehe was made captain, 



TUPELO. 511 

with head -quarters at Knoxville. He operated with 
his organization or command in East Tennessee, 
Western North Carolina, Northern Georgia, and 
South Carolina. 

He was captured seven times, and was sentenced 
to be shot at Salisbury, N. C, in 1862. He scaled 
the walls of the prison, however, and though shot 
through the body, escaped. In 1S63 he was captured 
by Wheeler, and was sentenced to be hung at Ash- 
ville, N. C. Again he escaped. 

During these eight years of service he belonged to 
eight different Confederate regiments, serving a part 
of the time as a private, and part of the time as a 
commissioned officer, and gaining much valuable in- 
formation. He, of course, had many adventures, and 
came out with many wounds. He was known then 
as Charlie Davis, and hundreds of Union officers, 
piloted by him to the Union lines, rescued by his 
command from rebel guards or prisons, have good 
cause to remember him with grateful feelings. 

After the war Capt. Davis (Boone) came North, 
but went to South Carolina in 1869 to organize the 
detective force of the state. It becoming evident 
that there was a secret organization of rebel sympa- 
thizers, against which the legitimate government 
could make little headway, Capt. Boone disappeared 
from South Carolina ami appeared in Georgia as a 
cotton buyer from North Carolina, rebel in sympathy, 
and violent in his talk against the tyranny of the 
Federal government. . He joined the order then 



512 TUPELO. 

known as the White Brotherhood, whose declared 
object was the protection of the widows and orphans 
of deceased rebel soldiers, and whose platform in- 
cluded the banding together of all sympathizers of 
the Lost Cause for the advancement of personal and 
political interest. The society, which it was said had 
organized in Washington, numbered at that time 
834,000 members, including all the rebel sympathiz- 
ers in the South — merchants, lawyers, farmers, trad- 
ers, mechanics. Hostility to negroes showed itself in 
violence and outrage, and even the leaders of the 
organization admitted that in this way only could 
they intimidate the blacks. Possessing himself of 
all the signs, passwords, etc., Capt. Boone returned 
to South Carolina to put the denials of such an or- 
ganization in that state to the test. He traveled ex- 
tensively, was recognized everywhere as a member of 
the order, and saw all their plans and aims from 
behind the scenes. The society adopted the name 
Ku-Klux to frighten the negroes, and the reckless 
men of the order perpetrated outrages that were never 
mentioned in print. During the years of '69 and 
'70, ninety-three cold blooded murders were perpe- 
trated in South Carolina alone. Hundreds of negroes 
and many white men were brutally whipped and 
otherwise abused. At Lawrence court-house, eighteen 
men were killed in one day, and the struggle at 
Newberry was what would have been a wholesale 
slaughter of Union men, had not Captain Boone 
managed to have troops put in an opportune appear- 



TUPELO. 513 

ance. In all his observations he collected facts, 
names, dates. He thoroughly understood the animus 
of the order, and understood their mode of action. 
Finally, when his report to the state officers had 
caused action, the signs and passwords of the order 
were changed, and suspicion being directed against 
himself, his usefulness ceased. 

His statements made under oath before the investi- 
gating committee at Washington and substantiated 
by the records and by the circumstances of the many 
cases, and by the testimony of others eminently hos- 
tile to him, is a strange chapter in the history of the 
Southern States. The whole thing in a nutshell is, 
that the outrages have not been exaggerated, but on 
the contrary that not one-half have been reported, 
and that when reported many of the acts lost some- 
thing of their brutality because of the absence of the 
particulars that could not be made public in a news- 
paper. 

The Government did not act in the Ku-Klux busi- 
ness a moment too soon. The Government would 
have been criminal had it delayed longer. The 
Government acted with the facts as learned by scores 
of men like Captain Booue, and as coming in the 
stories of thousands of persecuted citizens, before its 
officers, not trusting alone to the excited narrative of 
refugees. And the time will come when all good 
men, both North and South, will commend this action 
of the Government as one of its best deeds. — Toledo 
Blade. 
33 



514 TUPELO. 

THE MUSTERING. 

BY MRS. SARAH S. SOCWELL. 

Ho! Freemen of the loyal North, come to the rescue now — 
See! basely trampled in the dust, our glorious flag lies low! 
That flag which led our fathers on to victory and fame — 
Will ye stand tamely by arid see that banner brought to shame? 

No! like the rushing tempest's roar I hear the answer come, 
From princely hall, from homestead fair, from lowly cottage 

home; 
And, borne on every breeze, I hear, from mountain, plain, and 

glen, 
The stirring drum and bugle call, and tramp of armed men. 

The cry hath reached the lake-gemmed wilds and rugged shores 
of Maine — 

The woodman drops his gleaming ax — the fisher leaves his 
seine; 

And from New Hampshire's hills and vales pours down a gal- 
lant band, 

Who, firm as their own granite rocks, beneath our flag will 
stand. 

Old Massachusetts gladly sends the sons whose noble sires 

At Lexington and Bunker Hill first kindled Freedom's fires ; 

And from Connecticut's fair vales — Rhode Island's sea-girt 
shore, 

Comes forth a hardy band to strike for Liberty once more. 

Vermont's green mountain peaks have caught spirit-stirring 

tones; 
And prompt and dauntless, as of yore, pour down her sturdy 

sons; 
New York remembers Arnold now, when traitors claim the 

sway, 
And her brave sons by thousands come to mingle in the fray. 

Staid Pennsylvania rises, majestic in her might, 
And like a solid bulwark turns from Freedom'^ soil the fight; 
New Jersey, with her gallant Blues, i-s promptly in the field — 
The soil made sacred with her blood, she'll be the last to yield. 



TUPELO. 515 

And Delaware keeps, still unquenched, her sacred altar fires, 
Her children still remember the lessons of their sires. 
The Maryland'line has not yet lost its ancient patriot pride, 
Though treason, with unblushing front, holds back the swelling 
tide. 

And from the young, but mighty West, comes back a quick 

reply — 
" Beneath our flag we'll conquer, or beneath it we will die;" 
Along her noble rivers, o'er all her verdant plains, 
I hear the drum's deep clangor, the march of armed trains. 

The Freedom-loving Germans, remembering Fatherland, 
For Liberty and Union have taken valiant stand; 
And Erin's quivering harpstrings thrill with a wild refrain, 
As forth her sturdy children come to swell the thronging train. 

God bless the noble patriots, who are gathering in their might, 
The Lord of Hosts shall guard them in Freedom's holy fight; 
Ne'er may the gleaming sword be sheathed till treason finda 

its grave, 
And over our whole country our good old flag shall wave. 
La Prairie Center, Marshall Co. , Illinois. 

THE INDIANA ELECTION CASES. 

The verdict of guilty against Coy and Bernharner, 
charged with forgery of election returns in Indianap- 
olis, is another voice proclaiming that, in the northern 
tier of states, at any rate, votes must be cast as the 
voters wish, and must be counted as they were east. 
Crimes against the purity of elections are of the most 
heinous nature. By the quickened conscience of the 
American people they are regarded as not subject to 
pleas in mitigation of punishment; they are held to 
be not only unjustifiable but unpardonable. They 
proceed from the meanest motives, are executed by 



51 G TUPELO. 

the vilest of men, are most disastrous in their effect. 
Miscarriage of justice in a case touching the ptirity of 
an election is more to be deplored than miscarriage in 
a case affecting the property or life of an individual, 
for it touches the purity of those law-making and 
law-executing powers upon whose excellence protec- 
tion of life and property depend. 

W. D. Hart. 
3Iinden, Nebraska. 



A piny woods minister in Mississippi thus addressed 
his congregation : " My brethring and sistern, I air a 
ignorant man, follered the plow all my life, and never 
rubbed agin nary college. As I said afore, I air 
ignorant and I thank God for it. (Bro. Jones 're- 
sponds, 'Well, parson, you ought to be very thankful, 
for you are very ignorant.') Well, I never preaches 
Grammar and Greek for a thousand dollars a year, 
like some ministers. They preaches for the money, 
and they gits it, and that's all they'll git. They've 
got so high larnt that they contradicts Scripter, what 
plainly tells us the sun rises and sets. They sez it 
don't, but that the earth whirls round like clay to the 
seal, and that God hung it upon nothing. Now, 
what would come of the water in the wells if it did ? 
Wouldn't it all spill out and leave 'em dry, and we'd 
drap into the sky. I may say to them in the language 
of Scripter herself, ' Much learning doth make the 
mad.' I never permedertates, but what is given to 



TUPELO. 517 

me in that same hour that I scz. I never takes a 
tex till I goes inter the pulpit, and then I opens thee 
Bible, and the fust verse I seez I takes fur a tex, and 
I preaches from it a plain serment, what even women 
can understand. Now, brcthring and sistern, I opens 
the Bible, and the fust verse what I seez is this : ' I am 
f-e-a-r-f-u-1-l-y, fearfully and w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l-l-y, 
wonderfully m-a-d-e, mad.' 'I am fearfully and 
wonderfully mad.' Well, it's a quar tex, but I said 
I'd preach from it, and I'm gwine to do it. I'll 
divide my subject into three heads. First and for- 
inost, I'll show you that a man Avill git mad. Secondly, 
he'll sometimes git fearfully mad ; and thirdly, when 
there's lots of things to vex and pester him, he'll git 
fearfully and wonderfully mad. And in the appli- 
cation I'll show you that sometimes good men gits 
mad, fur David hisself, what rote the tex, got mad 
and cussed his enemies, wishen 'em to go down quick 
into hell, and Noah he got mad and got tight too, and 
cussed his nigger boy, Ham, just like some drunken 
masters now cusses their niggers." Thus he ranted 
from the exordium to the peroration, much to the 
edification of the canaille whom he addressed. They 
regarded him as a perfect Boanerges, to which surname 
his stentorian voice would justly entitle him. 



518 TUPELO. 



DARK HOURS. RY HORACE GREELEY. 

When Washington retreated, eighty-six years ago, 
with the small remnant of his thrice defeated army, 
from New York through New Jersey to seek refuge 
from his victorious pursuers behind the Delaware in 
Pennsylvania, many of his followers, doubtless, mur- 
mured at a dispensation of Providence to them so 
inscrutable. Was not the cause of American Inde- 
pendence j ust ? Was it not that of Universal Free- 
dom — of the inalienable Rights of Man ? If so, why 
should reverses fall thick and heavy upon it? Why 
should its brave defenders lie sleeping on the battle- 
fields they had illustrated by their valor and fertil- 
ized by their blood? Why should they languish in 
miserable hospitals or pine in pestilent prisons, hope- 
less and heartbroken? How could things have gone 
worse if the Universe were an accident, and blind 
Electricity or Gravitation were the only God? 

Rash, hasty judgment! A fly feeling the first frost 
of Autumn, might pass such a one on the benignity 
evinced in the structure and laws of the Solar System. 

Looking back from this distance, with the eighty- 
six years' experience to guide us, we can easily see 
that the disasters wherewith our forefathers opened 
their Revolutionary struggle was essential to the de- 
velopment of the most heroic phase of their charac- 
ter — their constancy under circumstances of intense 
discouragement. Had it been decreed that they 
should triumph from the outset — that the battle of 



TUPELO. .".1!) 

Long- Island should result in a "Continental victory," 
Leading to the capture or dispersion of Gen. Howe's 
army and the consequent recognition of our [inde- 
pendence before the close of that year, who beli 
that we should have become the people that we are? 
\\ ho does not see that our early reverses were ;i< 
beneficent as our ultimate successes — Long' Island as 
Saratoga, Brandywine as Yorktown '.' 

I attended on Saturday evening a meeting at 
Cooper Institute, called and addressed by rein 
from several of the states now in Rebellion against 
the Union. The speakers, four in number, were 
from Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and Mississippi 
respectively, but several others of the revolted States 
were represented in the call and on the platform. 
Col. Hamilton, of Texas, has repeatedly been heard 
in our city, and always speaks clearly and forcibly. 
Mr. Boynton, from Florida, spoke at considerable 
length, and laid bare the nature and impulse of 
the Rebellion. Mr. Carter, from Fast Tennessee, 
portrayed the persecutions, the distresses, the disap- 
pointed hopes, the heart sickness, of the loyal, Union- 
loving majority in that afflicted region, and pathet- 
ically asked if they must bear forever as they have 
borne for the last fifteen months, under the iron 1 eel 
of their cruel enemies, who rob and murder them at 
will, thrusting them into dungeons on suspicion that 
they are traitors, and dragging them away by thou- 
sands to fight the battles of an abhorred, detested 
treason. But the most effective speech of all was 



520 TUPELO. 

that of Rev. Mr. Aughey,* a Presbyterian clergy- 
man of Northern birth, late a pastor in Northern 
Mississippi, and an earnest, often, decided opponent 
of the Rebellion from the outset. Arrested as a 
traitor to the treason whereto he had never actively 
nor passively adhered, and which he therefore could 
not betray, he was heavily manacled and thrust into 
a crowded, filthy prison, whence his companions were 
taken out day by day to be shot, and their bodies 
thrown naked into a ditch as the punishment of their 
patriotism. Mr. Aughey himself, as a more deter- 
mined and influential Unionist, was reserved for 
conspicuous hanging, but escaped before the fulfill- 
ment of that amiable intention. Traveling in the 
opposite direction from that in which he would 
naturally be sought, wearing on his ankles the heavy 
iron fetters which he had not been enabled to remove, 
he was obliged to evade the blood-hounds that are 
usually kept for thchunting of slaves, but now em- 
ployed for tracking white Unionists, taking care to 
leave none of his garments in the prison, as from 
these the scent might be taken; traveling only by 
night, and then very slowly because of the galling 
circlets of his ankles ; living mainly on green corn 
plucked from the field and eaten raw, since to raise 
a smoke would have been to advertise his location 
to watchful, unrelenting foes ; he finally discovered 
himself at a venture to a farmer Who proved a Union- 

* Pronounced Awhay. This we learn by inquiry from the man him- 
self.— Eds. Independent. 



TUPELO. 52] 

•ist, and by whom he was conveyed on horseback 
several miles in the right direction, and thus enabled 
to evade the Rebel pickets and find refuge under the 
protecting folds of the Flag of Freedom. Mr. 
Aughey relates that while skulking through forests 
and corn fields on his way out of the house of 
bondage, he was sometimes impelled by thirst — the 
country being at that time intensely parched by 
drouth — to approach a dwelling aiuj ask for water ; 
and if, on drawing near, a slave appeared at the door 
or was seen through a window, he instinctively 
shrank back unobserved into the friendly shade, to 
bear his sufferings as he might. If, indeed, he could 
have found a habitation peopled only by blacks, he 
might have freely claimed its hospitality, but a slave- 
holding family was inevitably a den of malignant 
treason. Mr. Aughey's conclusion from all he had 
seen and heard is, that the number of those who have 
been murdered in the South for their loyalty — some 
of them black, but by far the greater portion white 
— is really appalling. We frequently hear from our 
democratic orators and journalists of "the South" 
requiring this or that for her security, and of what 
will or will not satisfy " the South," meaning always 
by " the South " the traitors who have taken that 
section by the throat and* compelled it to speak as 
they bid, or remain silent. Nobody would imagine, 
from hearing or reading a speech of Horatio Seymour 
or Fernando Wood, that there was anybody at the 
South but traitors, unless it be the black dependents 



522 TUPELO 

and devoted satellites of these traitors. The white 
Unionists of the Scuth are entirely ignored by those 
oracles or are assumed to be shivering with anxiety 
lest Slavery be rudely broken in the attempt to pre- 
serve the Union. But those Unionists come among 
us — they appeal to our sympathies, and invoke our 
interposition to save their families and neighbors 
from their cruel oppressors — and neither whisper a 
a word of anxiety that Slavery should be saved from 
impending destruction. On the contrary, they recog- 
nize in that fiend the cause of all their woes, the de- 
stroyer of our Nation's peace, and hope that the arm 
outstretched for their deliverance will hurl it into 
utter ruin. None of these Southern martyrs to their 
loyalty are seen consorting with our Northern cham- 
pions of the South — they do not seek the platforms 
whence Seymour harangues on the great mischiefs of 
Radicalism, or Brooks in silvery periods paints the 
horrors of Abolition. That undiscoverable negro 
who hates and flees from the Yankee hordes who 
come to tear him from the protection and kindness 
of " Massa," is not more rare than the Southern 
Unionist who, having braved death and suffered 
martyrdom for his loyalty, now comes North to en- 
treat us to put down the Great Rebellion so gingerly 
as to leave Slavery strong as ever. The champions 
of "the Union as it was, the Constitution as it is, 
and the Negroes as they were," are confined to the 
anti-Republicans of the Free States. 

Yet the hour is a dark one. Paralysis brooding 



TUPELO. 523 

over our armies ; disaster impending in our overtaxed 
finances; the people disgusted by delays, wearied out 
by disappointments, and sinking under heavy bur- 
dens that seem to be borne in vain, and thus giving 
triumph in some of the Free States to the natural 
allies and lifelong servitors of the now openly trai- 
torous Slave Power — all this would be appalling if 
the universe were a weltering chaos and the heavens 
without a God. But the darkest hour barely pre- 
cedes the dawn, and the coldest days of winter just 
anticipate the first premonitions of spring. At length 
our armies are embodied and ready for action ; the 
removal of Buell is a foretaste of like changes in every 
department whose delay and immobility are chronic; 
and the ominous silence of our augmented fleets pre- 
ludes the opening roar of cannonades and the fierce 
din of battle. Be patient yet a little longer, O loyal 
Millions! and your long-suffering shall be rewarded 
by the trumpet-notes of Victory, ushering in a long, 
bright era of Peace based on Justice and Universal 
Freedom ! — N. Y. Independent, Nov., 1862. 



We do not mean to extinguish the torch of science 
that we may sit in religious moonlight, and we do 
not intend to send our religion up to the biological 
laboratory for examination and approval. We shall 
not be afraid to open our eyes in the presence of 
nature, or ashamed to close them in the presence of 
God. 



524 tupei.o. 



BATTLE OF CORINTH. 



Generals Price and Van Dorn, having been de- 
feated at Iuka, Miss., by Gen. Rosecrans, resolved 
to avenge themselves of their adversary by his utter 
annihilation at Corinth. But they reckoned without 
their host. On Oct. 1st, 2d, and 3d, 1862, the san- 
guinary battle of Corinth was fought. The Confed- 
erates, although outnumbering the Nationals more 
than two to one, suffered an overwhelming defeat, 
losing in killed, officers and men, one thousand four 
hundred and twenty three. Their wounded amounted 
to nearly six thousand. They lost in prisoners, in 
the battle and subsequent pursuit, two thousand two 
hundred and forty-eight. Fourteen stand of colors, 
two pieces of artillery, three thousand three hundred 
stand of arms, four thousand five hundred rounds of 
ammunition, together with a large quantity of accou- 
trements, fell into the hands of the victors. Thus 
Rust, Price, Vityipigue, Van Dorn, and Lovell were 
beaten with heavy loss by a force one half their 
number. These rebels, however, fought like brave 
men, long and well. Loyal history must accord to* 
the rebel the acknowledgment of the bravery which 
he displayed, while it abhors his treason. The defeated 
rebel army returned to Tupelo, broken and dispirited, 
to recuperate and re-organize for another attempt to de- 
feat the patriot army. General Hackleman fell in 
this battle, lamented by the whole army. General 
Oglesby was severely (and at the time thought to be 



TUPELO. 525 

fatally) wounded. And many brave and loyal men 
surrendered life in defence of their country's imper- 
iled integrity on this bloody field. 

BATTLE OF TUPELO. 

The battle of Tupelo was one of the most impor- 
tant battles of the civil war fought in the Southwest. 

Gen. W. T. Sherman was attempting to reach the 
strategic stronghold of Atlanta. Between Chatta- 
nooga and Atlanta he must drive before him or de- 
stroy the efficient and disciplined army of that able 
commander, Gen. Jo. Johnston, who, carrying out 
the Fabian policy, endeavored to delay his adversary 
till he could throw upon his line of communication a 
cavalry force sufficient to sever it, and thus cut him 
off from his base of supplies. This would make a 
retreat compulsory. Between Nashville and the point 
where Sherman was slowly driving the Confederate 
army, by flanking its positions successively, there 
was but a single track railroad upon which supplies 
migh£ be brought. Wheeler, with a considerable 
force of cavalry, was endeavoring to destroy this road, 
confident of success as soon as he could be reinforced 
by Forrest, Chalmers, Rhoddy, Kirby, Smith, and 
Baxter, who were in Tupelo. To avoid this disas- 
trous result, Sherman directed Gen. Washburn to send 
Gen. S. D. Sturgis with a large force to attack For- 
rest. The Rebels, learning that this force was ap- 
proaching, moved out to meet it. A battle ensued, 
June 10th, 1864, at Tishomingo Creek, near Guntown. 



526 TUPELO. 

Sturgis proved incompetent. He suffered Forrest 
and Kirby Smith to succeed by a well executed 
flank movement in reaching the rear of his army, 
where his wagons were parked, and in destroying 
or capturing all his supplies, including the caissons 
containing his ammunition. A retreat was ordered, 
which soon became a pitiable and disastrous rout. 
Sauve qui pent became the watchword, as, panic- 
stricken and helpless because of the loss of their 
commissariat and ammunition, they fled before the 
cruel and victorious rebel hordes, who shot down 
without mercy or compunction all whom they over- 
took. The pursuit of this dispersed army, these 
scattered fugitives, was continued as long as any 
remained alive. Guerrillas with blood-hounds joined 
in the hunt. As a squad of these panting fugi- 
tives passed through Ripley, the women from their 
windows and doors shot them as they passed along. 
A young soldier begged a young lady who was 
seated on a veranda to give him a glass of water, 
as he was perishing from thirst. She walked" into 
the house, brought a glass of water, and while this 
young patriot was drinking she drew a pistol and 
immediately shot him. Thus perished Ralph Ers- 
kine, of near Golconda, Pope Co., 111. Two thou- 
sand two hundred perished thus cruelly at the hands 
of their merciless fellow countrymen. This savage 
and protracted pursuit occupied time which Sher- 
man was improving in making progress towards 
Atlanta, which he was destined to reach if his com- 



TUPELO. 527 

munication with his base of supplies could be kepi 
open. The persistency with which the rebels fol- 
lowed up their success exhausted them, and time 
was required for recuperation. At this junction Gen. 
A. J. Smith arrived at Memphis from Red River, 
with the troops of the Army of the Tennessee, which 
Gen. Sherman had sent to reinforce Banks, whom 
they rendered very efficient service. Smith was 
directed by Sherman immediately to move upon the 
Confederates at Tupelo. This he did, Gen. Grant 
says, with the promptness and effect which has char- 
acterized his whole military career. On the 14th of 
July, 1864, he met the enemy at Tupelo, and gained 
a glorious victory, whipping the enemy badly and 
routing him completely, after three days' hard fight- 
ing, yet losing few compared with the loss of the 
enemy. He thus contributed materially to the grand 
success achieved by Sherman, who was, by the utter 
overthrow of the rebel cavalry commanders at 
Tupelo, enabled to keep open communication with 
his depot of supplies at Nashville, and thus the 
defeat of Sturgis and the decisive victory of Smith 
rendered possible the capture of Atlanta, and all 
the victories that followed in its train. 

When Gen. A. J. Smith had accomplished the 
object of his expedition, he returned to Memphis, 
remembering to chastise the rebels and guerrillas by 
the way who had so atrociously maltreated Sturgis' 
defeated troops in their disastrous retreat. The 
inglorious defeat of Sturgis and the decisive victory 



528 TUPELO. 

of Smith both inured to the salvation of Sherman, 
the declarative glory of God, and the utter subver- 
sion of rebellion. In the battle of Tupelo, including 
Guntown or Tishomingo Creek, the Federals lost 
in killed, wounded, and captured, more than eleven 
thousand men, but the results achieved more than 
compensated this loss. 

The battle of Tupelo stands in the same relation 
to the capture of Atlanta, and the triumphant march 
of Sherman to the sea, that the battle of Oriskany 
does to the capture of Burgoyne. Vide Official 
Report of Lieut. -General Ulysses S. Grant, 1864— .- 
1865. 

Paoli, Orange Co., Ind. 

FROM "THE AMERICAN CONFLICT" — BY HORACE 
GREELEY. 

Before the opening of 1861, a perfect reign of ter- 
ror had been established throughout the Gulf States. 
A secret order, known as "Knights of the Golden 
Circle," or as "Knights of the Columbian Star," 
succeeding that known six or seven years earlier as 
the "Order of the Lone Star, " having for its osten- 
sible object the acquisition of Cuba, Mexico, and 
Central America, and the establishment of Slavery in 
the latter two, but really operating in the interest of 
disunion, had spread its network of lodges, grips, 
passwords, and alluring mysteries all over the South, 
and had ramifications even in some of the cities of 
adjoining Free States. Other clubs, more or less 



TUPELO. 

secret, were known as "The Precipitators," "Vigi- 
lance Committees," "Minute Men," and by kindred 
designations; but all of them were sworn to fidelity 
to Southern Eights; while their members were grad- 
ually prepared and ripened, wherever any ripening 
was needed, for the task of treason. Whoever ven- 
tured to condemn and repudiate Secession as the true 
and sovereign remedy for Southern wrongs, in any 
neighborhood where Slavery was dominant, was 
thenceforth a marked man, to be stigmatized and 
hunted down as a Lincolnite, Submissionist, or Abo- 
litionist. 

One refugee planter from Alabama, himself a 
slaveholder, but of Northern birth, who barely escaped 
a violent death, because of an intercepted letter from a 
relative iu Connecticut, urging him to free his slaves 
and return to the North as he had promised, stated 
that "he had himself been obliged to join the 'Min- 
ute Men' of his neighborhood for safety, and had 
thus been compelled to assist in hanging six men of 
Northern birth because of their Union sentiments, 
and he personally knew that not less than one /<"//- 
dred men had been hung in his section of the state 
and in the adjoining section of Georgia during tin- 
six weeks which preceded his escape in December, 
1860." This gentleman made his statement to Mr. 
O. J. Victor, author of "The History of the South- 
ern Rebellion," who knew him well and vouches 
for his integrity. (See his Vol. L, p. 134.) See to 
the same effect the testimony of lion. A. J. Hamilton, 
34 



530 TUPELO. 

of Texas, Rev. Mr. Aughey, of Mississippi, and hun- 
dreds of others. 

Southern unanimity (in certain localities) for Seces- 
sion was such as violence and terror have often pro- 
duced in favor of the most universally detested men 
and measures all over the world. Such an apparent 
unanimity was doubtless secured, but at the expense 
of not less than ten thousand precious lives, taken 
because the victims would not conceal and deny their 
invincible affection for their whole country. — The 
American Conflict. Vol I., page 350. Vide also 
page 514, Vol. I. 

FROM A SOLDIER'S LETTER. 

THE SOLDIER'S LOT. 
The feigned retreat, the nightly ambuscade, 
The daily harass and the fight delayed, 
The long privation of the hoped supply, 
The tentless rest beneat.i the humid sky, 
The stubborn wall that mocks the leaguer's art, 
And palls the patience of his baffled heart, 
Of these they had not deemed. The battle day 
They could encounter as a veteran may ; 
But more preferred the fray, the strife, 
And present death, to hourly suffering life. " 

The above lines convey the truth better than I can 
express it of the soldier's lot. 

Your friend and comrade, 

Moses Boyd. 
Amsterdam, Jefferson Co., 0., Feb 12th, 1867. 
To Rev. J. II. Aughey, 

Leavenworth, Crawford Co., Ind. 



TUPELO. 531 

THE GLORIOUS FOURTH. 

There is something more than sentiment in our 
annual celebration of the Fourth of July. It is the 
nation's birthday. John Adams was right when, 
on the adoption of the Declaration of Independence/ 
he declared that posterity would celebrate the event 
with noisy enthusiasm. It is a prophecy well ful- 
filled, and well it is that it is well fulfilled, even 
though it include that diabolical nuisance, the Chi- 
nese fire-cracker. 

Like all other celebrations, it helps to keep alive 
in us an appreciation of what we celebrate. It tends 
to fan the flame of our patriotism, and to awaken a 
sense of personal responsibility. Liberty can not be 
perpetuated, any more than it can be achieved, with- 
out virtue, honor, love offlpountry, love of kind, and 
love of God. Despotism may dwell in darkness, 
and cultivate ignorance and corruption; but liberty 
must have the light, and demands intelligence and 
purity. 

Grand men were those fathers of our country ! 
Theirs was a daring, a patience, an endurance that 
has had few parallels in the whole course of human 
history. A few weak colonists were struggling 
against the foremost military power in the world — 
an infant in the arms of, and struggling against, its 
mother. But it was a case in which the mother more 
than half suspected she was wrong, and where the 
child, knowing it was right, appealed to men for the 



532 TUPELO. 

justice of their cause, and to God for the help which 
He alone could give. "A decent respect for the 
opinions of mankind," and trust in God as the All- 
wise Ruler of nations, makes a good foundation on 
which to build a new and great nation. But this 
was a case of building far better than they knew. 
The foundation was belter. The building was larger. 
It is true that God is not recognized by name in the 
Constitution, but this is more because He had been 
recognized to that extent that further recognition did 
not seem necessary, rather than that there was any 
lack of faith and trust. To fail to name God even 
in fit time and place, does not justify an- implication 
of atheism in one whose whole life is grounded in a 
settled consistent faith in Him. 

Who can imagine in what different channels his- 
tory would have run had trust in God, as a factor, 
been wanting. Fighting to break the yoke of the 
oppressor, they achieved liberty — liberty in its high- 
est sense, "freedom to worship God." When that 
yoke was broken, though they had not fought for 
any particular form of government, nor in the inter- 
est of any one to govern, the whole machinery of a 
new form of government was ordained, and rulers 
electe 1, and not another drop of blood shed. History 
furnishes no parallel. The revolution in France came 
later, they had us to pattern after. But men who 
had lost faith in religion, even to the point of being 
atheists, could have no "decent respect for the opin- 
ions of mankind," and so were in no condition to 



TUPELO 533 

pattern. The horror of their revolution is unspeak- 
able, and the sun of their republic set in blood, and 
was succeeded by a night of merciless, brutal despot- 
ism; while ours is even now ascending the heavens, 
lacking much yet of having reached the zenith. 

Little did those men know, who won so much for 
us, the significance of their work. Little did they 
realize of the great extent of the country whose dedi- 
cation to freedom they were making possible. For 
the vast domain secured by the Louisiana and Alaska 
purchases has followed a line of destiny predeter- 
mined by them. Little did they dream how soon 
this country, then mostly an unexplored wilderness, 
would become the home of nearly a hundred millions 
of the most prosperous and happy people on the i'acc 
of the earth; nor how, by forces as yet unharnessed, 
this wilderness would so soon be made to bud and 
blossom as the rose. Their ship of state was stronger 
than they knew. There may have been fascinations, 
but there was little in the history of republics to 
justify confidence to make another experiment in that 
line. But a master-hand laid her keel, and made 
all her ribs of steel. Her trustworthiness has been 
most fully shown in storm and in action. Furiously 
attacked, but gallantly defended, in 1812-14, when 
the storm cloud had passed, it was plain that "Our 
flag was still there." 

In 1860-64, in a rebellion that would have cost any 
other nation under heaven its life, "a government by 
the people" was found sufficiently strong not only to 



534 TUPELO. 

protect and maintain its own integrity, but to elimi- 
nate from the body politic the vile cancer of slavery 
which had caused the trouble. To conduct both sides 
of the greatest war in the history of the world, and 
come out of it on the side of the government, so con- 
sciously strong as not to demand, by way of penalty, 
one drop of rebel blood, is an exhibition both of 
power and patience unparalleled. After more than a 
hundred years, we begin to have the right to celebrate. 
We have no mushroom government. It is a great 
fact, and a great power. It has come to stay. In it 
our fathers gave us a vast inheritance. But it is one 
that implies vast responsibility and care on our part. 
It would be an easy thing in this case for the children 
to waste their patrimony. Fourths of July, with all 
their noise and fun, readings of the Declaration, and 
speeches both green and dry, will not prevent it. 

The men who, for "freedom to worship God," 
landed on a rock, and braved the rigors of a New Eng- 
land winter, and won their living from its sterile soil, 
are not represented in men who desecrate Sabbaths, 
ridicule worship, and have "no God," nor can these 
degenerate sons appreciate, much less maintain, the 
institutions, civil and religious, that have been handed 
down to them. But for the religious, Ave could not 
have had the civil; and you can not now take the 
former away, and keep the latter standing. We shall 
have "glorious Fourths of July," just so long and no 
longer than we are true to the traditions of our 
fathers, and to Christianity, which underlies and per- 
meates our government. 



TUPEI.o. 535 



FEATEUNAL RELATIONS. 



In the year of grace 1882 the Southern General 
Assembly made this palinodial deliverance: "In 
order to remove all difficulties in the way of that full 
and formal correspondence, which, on our pari, we 
are prepared to accept, we adopt the following min- 
ute, to-wit: That, while receding from no principle, 
we do hereby declare our regret for, and withdrawal 
of, all expressions of our Assembly which may be 
regarded as reflecting upon, or offensive to, the ( lib- 
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the 
United States of America. " 

The Northern General Assembly responded by 
recalling the epithets, heretics, schismatics, and blas- 
phemers, which a former Assembly in the fiery days 
of civil war had applied to their Southern brethren. 
This prepared the way for the establishment of fra- 
ternal correspondence, which was then inaugurated, 
and which has been continued till the present day 
with increasing interest, thus burnishing brighter 
and brighter the golden chain of friendship — 

"That peculiar boon of Heaven, 
The noble mind's delight and pride, 
To men and angels only given, 
To all the lower world denied. " 

In due time oracanic union will be tlie desirable 
outcome, as sure as the coming of the prophesied 
millenium. 

Bdlville, Richland Co., 0. 



536 TUPELO 

THE RUM TRAFFIC DOOMED. 

We do not look upon the present movement against 
the saloon as a passing wave of excitement, as a tem^ 
porary ebullition of public feeling on the liquor ques-. 
tion. It is too strong and deep for that. It is a 
movement that has come to stay, to grow, and to 
succeed. It has taken hold of the hearts and minds 
of the people as no movement of the kind ever did 
before. The country is at last awakening to a full 
and true realization of the fearful wrongs and abuses 
which are the inevitable accompaniments of the drink 
traffic. We have seen the beginning of the end. 
The handwriting is upon the wall — the saloon must 
go. That edict will not be repealed. It may not be 
in this decade; it may not be in the next; but as 
surely as God reigns the day is coming, and that 
soon, when this land, from East to West, from North 
to South, will be ever free from the curse of the legal- 
ized rum traffic. This is a large hope, but it is ours, 
and we rejoice in it. It has its basis upon no illu- 
sory dream, but upon a sure and strong conviction, 
which nothing can shake. And having this hope, 
we are not greatly troubled about such things as 
vetoes and decisions of the courts. These things 
may retard the onward movement for a brief season, 
but they cannot stop it. The rum traffic is doomed 
to die. — New York Observer. 



TUPELO. 7)M 

JOHN WESLEY ON TEMPERANCE. 

We may not sell anything which tends to impair 
health; such is eminently all that liquid fire, commonly 
called drams or spirituous liquors. It is true, these 
may have a place in medicine, they may be of use in 
some bodily disorder (although there would rarely be 
occasion for them, were it not for the unskillful ness 
of the practitioner) ; therefore, such as prepare and sell 
them for this end only, may keep themselves clear; 
but who are they? Do you know ten such distillers 
in England? Then excuse these; but all who sell 
them in the common way, to any that will buy, are 
prisoners general. They murder her majesty's sub- 
jects by wholesale; neither does their eye pity nor 
spare; they drive them to hell like sheep ; and what 
is their gain? Is it not the blood of these men? 
Who, then, would envy their largo estates and sump- 
tuous palaces? A curse is in the midst of them ; the 
curse of God cleaves to the stones, the timber, the 
furniture of them; the curse of God is in their gar- 
dens, their walks, their groves; a fire that burns to 
the nethermost hell. Blood, blood is there ! The 
foundation, the floor, the roof, are stained with blood ; 
and canst thou hope, O thou man of blood, though 
thou art clothed in purple and fine linen, and farest 
sumptuously every day, canst thou hope to deliver 
down thy fields of blood to the third generation? 
Not so; for there is a God in Heaven, therefore thy 
name shall be rooted out, like as those whom thou 
hast destroyed, body and soul; thy memorial shall 
perish with thee. 



538 TUPELO. 

UNRESTRICTED IMMIGRATION. 

In his oration at Gettysburg, July 3, 1888, in the 
presence and in the hearing of that great multitude of 
ex-Union and ex-Confederate soldiers, Mr. George 
William Curtis truly said, in reference to unrestricted 
immigration : 

" Let us beware then how we recklessly water our 
life-blood. Webster said at Bunker Hill, just as the 
vast immigration was beginning, ' We are placed at 
the head of representative and popular governments.' 
We shall be recreant to the duty of that headship if 
we permit the fundamental conditions of national 
repose, of the security of personal rights, of good laws, 
and of just administration, to be imperiled by the ig- 
norant, lawless, idle, and dangerous overflow of all 
other countries. We are the occupants and guardians 
of this country, and with a kindly heart and hospi- 
table hand toward all the world, we must prescribe the 
conditions upon which the world shall come here." 

Another issue to be met is to secure the absolute 
purity of the ballot box ; that every one entitled to 
vote should be permitted to do so without molestation, 
and that his vote should be counted as it was intended 
to be. Without these two securities, the mainte- 
nance of the republican form of government is impos- 
sible. On this issue Mr. Curtis, in the same oration, 
was explicit and forcible. He said : 

"Akin to this [the matter of immigration] is the 
problem of the suffrage. Subject to the constitutional 
guarantee of a republican form of government, and of 



TUPELO. 539 

no discrimination against race or color, the regulation 
of the suffrage is wisely left to the States. Jiut the 
action of every state upon subjects of a common inter- 
est necessarily affects the Union. The suffrage is the 
mainspring, the heart of our common life, and what- 
ever affects it injuriously, touches the national sen- 
sorium, and the whole country thrills. No commu- 
nity politically founded upon the legal equality of 
the suffrage can habitually disregard that equality 
without moral deterioration, growing indifference to 
the authority of law, and destruction of the demo- 
cratic-republican principle. If ignorance and semi- 
barbarous dominance be fatal to civilized communi 
not less so is constant and deliberate defiance of law. 
In a national union of states where fair elections are 
assumed, systematic fraud, or violence, or suppression 
of votes, in the eveut of a closely contested poll, would 
inevitably destroy the conviction that the apparent 
result represented the will of the legal voters, and 
that result would be challenged amid violent disor- 
der. It is not enough that a national election be fair, 
it must be the national conviction that it is fair. " 



Upon what does the success of the liquor traffic 
depend? Upon debased manhood, degraded woman- 
hood, defrauded childhood. It holds a mortgage over 
every cradle; a deed written in heart's blood over 
every human life. Shall mothers hear this and be 
silent? Shall fathers know this and remain silent? 
— N. Y. Tribune. 



540 TUPELO. 

The state, having its origin in divine institution, 
and therefore the creature of God, existing for moral 
ends, and conversant about moral objects, possessed 
of a moral character, and having moral responsibilities 
to and reckonings with God, ought, as a state, to 
have a religious character and life of its own, and in 
suitable forms to give expression to these. This is 
peculiarly incumbent upon the state, as such, because 
the state assumes to exercise dominion over its sub- 
jects, their property, their persons, and their lives; 
and it is monstrous that a power vested in men should, 
in that august and dreadful name, assume such pre- 
rogatives, and yet not expressly acknowledge its own 
subjection to the Majesty in the heavens, and to the 
divine law as the supreme standard by which it is 
obliged to conform in all its acts and functions. — 
Rev. E. D. IfcMaster, D.D. 



Notice the destructive and aggressive character of 
the religion of Christ. It is the destroyer of tyranny, 
of slavery ; destined to destroy the rum power and 
idolatry. All nations have been formed upon some 
religious notions. Those alone formed upon the 
Christian religion will prove permanent. Chris- 
tianity came as a religion of peace. It has entered 
upon a spiritual warfare against giant errors. It 
met the world with new ideas of good, of morality, 
of purity and political right. The nation exalted by 
righteousness will be perennial. Lord, thus exalt us. 

Utica, Licking Co., Ohio. 



TUPELO. 541 

THE OCTOROON, THOMAS GEIMKE. 

" With peaceful mind thy path of duty run; 
God nothing does, nor suffers to he done, 
But what thou wouldst thyself, if thou couldst see 
Through all events of things as well as he." 

Thomas Grimke was one of those who were guard- 
ing my house when attacked, as recorded on page 62 
of this volume. In the summer of 1853 I traveled 
by stage from Holly Springs, Miss., to Grenada, in 
the same state. In order to better observe the scen- 
ery through which we were passing, I asked and 
obtained permission to ride with the driver. A 
planter who resided near Grenada sat on one side of 
the driver, and I was invited to be seated between 
them. Behind us, on the stage, lay a manacled 
slave. Agony was depicted upon his countenance. 
It seemed to be the pangs of bitter disappointment 
rather than of pain, though his position was appar- 
ently a very uneasy one. Both hands and feet were 
fettered. I found the planter, Dr. Bailie Peyton, a 
very loquacious gentleman. After we had established 
an acquaintance I said casually, casting a backward 
glance, "Is this your boy ?" (Male slaves are called 
boys until they are forty or forty-five years old, alter 
which they are called uncle.) 

"Yes," said the doctor, "and he's a troublesome 
one." 

"What has he done?" 

"This makes ten times that he has run away, and 
it has cost me five hundred dollars to catch him. I 



542 TUPELO. 

have sworn to give him one thousand lashes, well 
laid on, in four installments, when I get him home." 

"Why, that will kill him, won't it?" 

"I don't care if it does." 

"Why, he's worth fifteen hundred dollars." 

" Fifteen hundred ! I wouldn't take any man's 
three thousand for him. He's a splendid overseer, 
and he has no bad habits except running away." 

" Doctor, what induces him to run away." 

"Well, parson, ain't you a parson?" 

"Yes, sir." 

" Well, pardon me for making use of some pretty 
strong expletives in your presence. Thinking of the 
trouble and expense Le Roy has put me to is very 
provoking. Parson, I think he has some high no- 
tions about freedom. My aunt, Annetta Peyton, 
took quite a fancy to Le Roy, and, being a religious 
old maid, she took it into her head (her heart she 
always said) to violate our state laws, and teach him 
to read and write. It's a whim of hers that he looks 
like the Peytons, and isn't any common nigger. 
This is what it ends in. Since her death he has been 
continually running away." 

"Where did you find him this time?" 

"Near Bowling Green, Ky. He was heading 
straight for Canada. I hired Derrick Louray, with 
his famous nigger dogs, and Barley Bird, with his 
imported Cuban blootl-hounds. I hired them when 
his track was fresh, and they were out a month, and 
hunted all over Grenada, Yalobusha, and Panola 



TUPELO. 543 

counties. They scoured the country a whole month, 
and came back wofully crestfallen. They both 
swore that it was the first time they had failed to 
bring back the nigger dead or alive. After this, this' 
slave will work with a ball and chain attached to his 
ankle, and under a vigilant overseer ; that is, if he 
stands the thousand lashes." 

"Doctor, it would be merciful to remit a part of 
the penalty." 

" Why, parson, would you want me to swear to a 
lie? I've sworn to give him a thousand, well laid 
on, and he'll get them, if he dies at the post." 

" Some oaths are more honored in the breach than 
in the observance." 

" Parson, you may rest assured this one will not 
be honored in the breach, and I may order the over- 
seer to carry one for every ten, so that there will not 
be any mistake about the thousand." 

"He seems to be as white as either you or I?" 

"Yes, he's an octoroon. I think that accounts for 
his remarkable success in evading the hounds, and 
getting so far north. I think he passed himself off 
for a white man, and with his glib tongue imposed 
upon the white people, and got lodging, and so trav- 
eled north. He was working: in Bowling Green as 
a white porter in a grocery. His employer saw a 
description of him as a runaway slave in the Mem- 
phis Eagle and Enquirer, and his suspicion being 
aroused, in order to secure the reward, he wrote me. 

"As soon as I received his letter I went up post- 



544 TUPELO. 

haste, and sure enough found that it was Le Roy. 
His story was that he was a stevedore, lived in Mo- 
bile, Alabama, and was on his Avay to visit friends 
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and having lost his pocket-book 
at the hands of a pick -pocket he was compelled to 
work awhile to make up the loss. I'm thinking that 
it will be some considerable time before he visits his 
friends in Cincinnati. I have no doubt that every 
fugitive slave has friends in Cincinnati. I'll whip 
the story out of him when I get him home, and find 
out if any villain knowingly helped him on his way 
toward the polar star. And if any one did, woe to 
him. His abolition carcass will soon be filled with 
more lead than it can easily tote. I bought a wife 
for him that he took a fancy to, of Senator Wash - 
ington, my neighbor. She, like himself, is an octo^ 
roon. However, I sold her last year to General 
Jo. Jefferson, of Grenada. I hated to sell her from 
her husband, but the General wanted a woman. 
He's a lustful old fellow, and I got a cool $3,000 
for her. My stars ! how mad Leroy w r as. He acted 
as though he wanted to kill somebody for awhile, 
and then I feared he'd commit suicide by slow 
starvation. He has never been the same man since. 
If I did get a pretty good price for the girl, I came 
near losing Le Roy by it, and so did not make much 
in the long run. The boy became discontented, and 
my other niggers seemed to sympathize with him, 
and I overheard them saying that I would never 
have any luck. Things did go wrong. I think 



TUPELO. 545 

they tried to make their prophecies come true. The 
cotton crop turned out poorly, and corn was almost 
a failure. Some of my best working mules were 
killed by buffalo gnats in the Taccaleeche swamp. 

"I tied Le Roy up and gave him two hundred 
lashes on the bare back, thinking I would whip the 
sulks out of him. Then he ran away, and it has 
cost fearfully to hire hounds and to go all the way 
up to Bowling Green, Ky., after him, and to pay 
the large reward I offered for his recovery. A gen- 
eral gloom has settled down upon my family, and 
upon the whole plantation. I have had the devil to 
pay all around. I sometimes wish that I had not 
sold Dilsie, but she was my property and I had the 
right to dispose of her to whomever I chose. Had 
I known what was to follow from the meanness and 
superstition of my hands, as a matter of policy I 
should have declined the $3,000 and kept Dilsie. 
Dilsie had a baby, blue-eyed and light-haired. She 
called her Minnie. She is three years old. I sold 
her last week to Major Madison, of Grenada, for 
.$500. Girl babies that are white and pretty bring 
a fearful price in this neck of woods. She will bring 
the Major $3,000 if he wishes to sell her when she 
is fourteen years old." 

" Fourteen, Doctor, that is quite a high price for 
one so young." 

"Parson, I have known them to be used at 
twelve." 

"But is it quite right to traffic in female virtue?" 
35 



^46 TUPELO. 

"A slave has no rights that a white man is bound 
to respect. This is the view of the South, and it 
is the doctrine of the Bible, too. I heard Parson 
Angus Johnson, of Water Valley, preach a sermon 
on the duties of slaves. He told us that it was 
their duty to obey in all things their masters, and 
that if in chastising a slave his master killed him, 
according to the Bible he ought not to be punished, 
because he is his money. Oh ! he gave us some 
mighty good doctrine. 

" I am not a Christian, far from it, but I have 
some respect for a religion that teaches such whole- 
some doctrine, and I will help support any minister 
that preaches like Parson Johnson. I did once order 
my overseer to give a girl a hundred lashes. She 
was enciente and the fright and pain brought on pre- 
mature labor, and she died the next day. I felt very 
bad. If I had been a murderer I could not have 
felt worse for awhile. But as providence would 
have it, though I ' seldom attend church, I went 
the next Sabbath. I wanted to hear what hope there 
was in the gospel for such a great sinner as I felt 
myself to be. There was a burden on my soul that 
I felt I must get rid of or die. When I heard the 
parson say that God had ordained slavery, and that 
slaves must obey their masters, in all things, I felt 
better, and when he said the Bible tells us if a man 
smite his servant or his maid with a rod and he die 
under his hand, he shall not be punished, for he is 
his money, I received that as a special message from 



TUPELO. 5 1 7 

heaven addressed to myself. My conscience was qui- 
eted and I returned home a happier man. Parson 
Johnson had heard of Dinah's death and the cause of 
it, and he preached a special sermon to fit the case. I 
do not remember the text, but I think it was the usual 
text against the abolitionists, 'Cursed be Canaan, a 
servant of servants shall he be for ever and ever, amen ; 
and whosoever findeth him shall enslave him.' Dinah 
was worth $1,500. She was a good field hand. The 
loss of the money I can stand. The thought that I 
was a murderer was killing me, but the gospel, as 
dispensed by Parson Johnson, healed that trouble, as 
the parson said, there is a balm in Gilead to heal the 
wounded and troubled conscience. He further said 
that Christ and his apostles approved the slavery that 
existed in their day, when the power of life and death 
was vested in the master, and that they required slaves 
to be obedient, not only to the good and gentle, but 
also to the froward. When beaten they were to take, 
it patiently, they were not even to answer again or 
to talk back. All power, according to the Bible, was 
vested in the master; submission in all things was 
the duty of the slave. The parson said the abolition- 
ists of the North said, for \vc don't allow any in the 
South, by way of argument against slavery, that 
some of our slaves were white an 1 that many of them 
were our own children. In Christ's day, he replied, 
all the slaves were of the same color as their masters 
and many of them were their master's children, and 
Christ and his apostles did not disapprove it for that 



548 TUPELO. 

reason. Ah! my friend, the parson is a powerful 
preacher. He preaches the gospel that suits me. I 
subscribed $100 to his salary the next day. Before 
he left my house — for he dined with me that day — I 
gave him a present of fifty dollars in gold, and as- 
sured him he should never be destitute of a true 
friend while I lived. He preaches a gospel that 
makes a man feel good and happy from the bottom of 
his heart; he feels like thanking God for such a gos- 
pel. If our slaves had this gospel preached to them, 
and they would receive it, they would be far less dis- 
contented." 

At this moment the wheels of a heavily laden wagon 
collided with the wheels of our coach. We soon after 
reached a relay house, when the driver discovered 
that one of the wheels of the coacli was injured by 
the collision and needed repair. This occasioned a 
delay of two hours. The passengers sauntered hither 
and yonder at will. Le Roy was carried into the 
yard in the rear of the relay house and laid upon a 
plat of ground near the palings. 

After the lapse of an hour I approached him. 
From my look of compassion and from my conver- 
sation with his master, he was led to hope that I 
might be a friend to him in this hour of sorest need. 
As I drew near he said : 

"Master, for the love of God bring me some 
water." 

I supplied his urgent need from a pump hard by. 
His next question : 



TUPELO. 549 

"Master, where was you born?" 

"In New Hart ford, near Utica, N. Y." 

"Is that in the North?" 

"Yes." 

"Master, I'm in great distress." 

"Do you suffer much pain?" 

"Some in body, but more in mind." 

"What troubles your mind?" 

"Unless I can get away before master gets me 
home he will murder me, for there's murder in his 
eye and in his heart." 

Agony was depicted upon his countenance, and his 
voice quivered with emotion. I left him, and walked 
to and fro in a grove of Norway spruce a short dis- 
tance from the hotel. I reflected thus: This man 
has a wife and child, though bereft of them for the 
present. I have no family. He is doomed to a 
cruel death, for he cannot survive a, thousand lashes 
laid on by one who is prompted by wrath and hatred 
and malice. Is it my duty to risk my life to save 
his? These passages occurred to my mind: ''Re- 
member those that are in bonds as bound with 
them," and "lie that saveth his life shall lose it." 
My duty in the premises seemed plain. I returned 
and said : 

"Le Roy, what can I do to save you?" 

"Master, you can get me a file. My wrists are 
larger than my hands. I can slip the handcuffs off 
at any time, and having a fde I can soon rid my 
ankles of the chain, and I can without much diffi- 
culty travel with the bands on my ankles." 



550 TUPELO. 

"If I help you at the risk of my life will you 
betray me?" 

"Never, so help me God. 

"If you are overtaken and caught by the hounds 
can they compel you by whipping to tell who helped 
you?" 

"I will die at the post before I would tell on you 
or any one who helps me." 

"Well, I will run the awful risk. I will get you 
a file and will assist you all I can." 

" When we reach Grenada it will be night. Mas- 
ter will lodge at the Grenada House till morning. 
You can get the file at a hardware store in the city, 
and pass it to me in some way I will be on the 
lookout." 

I left Le Roy to his meditations. When we en- 
tered the coach I noticed Le Roy's face beaming 
with a new-born hope. We reached Grenada at 
seven o'clock. After supper I visited a hardware 
store and made a few purchases, and managed to se- 
crete a file on my person. I feared to purchase one. 
At another store I purchased a ball of twine. Dr. 
Peyton and I registered together, and at his request 
were assigned to the same room. Le Roy was car- 
ried by two stalwart colored servants to an unfur- 
nished room in the second story, the Doctor and I 
accompanying them. The Doctor locked the door 
and put the key in his pocket. I obtained reluctant 
leave of the Doctor to procure some corn bread and 
meat for Le Roy. I went to the kitchen and bought 



TUPELO. 551 

the food from one of the servants. I asked the 
Doctor to accompany me to the room. lie handed 
me the key, saying that he must visit the barber. I 
procured a lamp, and going to Le Roy's dark, dis- 
mal, little room, gave him the food, together with 
the file and twine. 

I told him I dared not purchase a rope, and knew 
not how he could descend from the window of his 
room to the ground, as the twine was not strong 
enough to bear his weight. He replied : 

"My wife is at General Jefferson's. Call there. 
She will answer the bell. Tell her to bring a rope 
and come under the window of this room with it at 
midnight, that I will let down the twine, she can tie 
the rope to it, and I can get down in that way." 

I called at General Jefferson's at nine o'clock. An 
octoroon came to the door. Said I : 

"What is your name?" 

She replied, "Dilsie." 

"Do you know Dr. Peyton's Le Roy?" 

"He is my husband." 

I gave her her husband's message. She promised 
compliance. I had told Le Roy that if he could 
reach Ripley, Miss., to inquire for Mr. Faulkner, 
wdio would render him all possible aid, and would 
send me any information he might have for me. I 
returned to the hotel at half past ten. I asked Dr. 
Peyton to visit Le Roy to sec that he was still there. 
We did so, and found him as we had Lit him. The 
Doctor assured him that he would get die city 



552 TUPELO. 

whipper to give him the first installment of the 

thousand lashes bright and early in the morning, 
before starting for home. Le Roy said : 

" Master, please be merciful." 

"You do not deserve mercy," rejoined the Doctor. 

We then returned to our room and retired. We 
did not wake till half past seven in the morning. 
As we were dressing we heard a great tumult in the 
hotel. Presently the landlord knocked loudly at our 
door. Upon being admitted he said : 

"Doctor, your nigger absconded in the night, a 
rope, apparently a bed-rope, hangs dangling from the 
window of his room, the only clew as yet as to the 
manner of his escape. Who furnished the rope or 
aided him in getting rid of his irons is as yet a mys- 
tery. I have given the alarm in the city and the 
authorities are on the alert and your slave will doubt- 
less soon be brought in." 

The doctor lost all control of his temper and swore 
terribly. He started a messenger off for Barley Bird, 
and his imported Cuban blood-hounds, ordering him 
to make all possible haste. He declared with a ter- 
rible oath that when caught he would tie Le Roy up 
by the thumbs and administer the thousand lashes at 
once. He closely scrutinized the room and the yard 
below. He secured the rope by which the descent 
had been made. He found the door of the room 
locked as when he had left it. An air of impenetra- 
ble mystery surrounded the whole affair. The serv- 
ants at the hotel professed profound ignorance of the 



TUPELO. 553 

matter. The night had boon very dark. It was the 
dark of the moon and lowering clouds had obscured 
the starlight. One of the guests reported that hav- 
ing occasion to go out near midnight he encountered 
a colored woman not far from the ground underneath 
the window whence Le Roy had escaped. He asked 
her who she was and what she was doing out there at 
so late an hour. She replied that she was a cham- 
bermaid and that she was waiting upon the sick lady 
in room No. 30, and that she was out in her service. 
The servants were all required to put in an appear- 
ance in the dining-room, but the investigation elicited 
no information. Barley Bird arrived with his hounds 
but could not get them to scent Le Boy's track. Many 
colored persons had visited the yard, and when the 
hounds found a track it would terminate on the steps 
or lead into the kitchen or dining-room. All Grenada 
was on the qui vive. After a few visits to the bar the 
doctor became furious and reckless. He offered $500 
for the arrest of the fugitive. Soon eight companies, 
each with a pack of blood-hounds, were scouring the 
country near and far in search of the fugitive, each 
bent on securing the reward. They visited General 
Jefferson's mansion, but the general positively de- 
clared that Dilsie had not left his premises during 
the night, of this he was absolutely certain. A thor- 
ough search was instituted. At fifteen minutes of 
twelve Dilsie had quietly and unperceived slipped out 
of the house, leaving the general asleep, and in half 
an hour she had accomplished the dangerous task. 



054 TUPELO. 

She secreted Le Roy in the chicken-coop, in a box 
underneath, a lot of straw on which two hens were 
incubating, one at each end of the box. It was a 
difficult feat to get under the straw without disturbing 
the fowls, but it was nevertheless accomplished by 
the dexterous aid of this devoted woman. The bay- 
ing of the hounds and the shouting and yelling of 
the infuriated pursuers made the general's premises a 
perfect pandemonium for the space of two hours. 
They were loth to leave the jilace, and remained till 
every recess and crevice capab'e of sheltering a hu- 
man being had been examined. Descrying the 
chicken-coop they sent a colored boy into it, and bade 
him toss up the straw in the box, but the disturbed 
hens pecked and squawked furiously. The boy thrust 
his arm down into the straw, when one of the hens 
pecked him in the eye, causing him to beat a hasty 
retreat. The crowd ordered him to return to the 
search. He did so, thrusting his arm down at vari- 
ous points, but apparently made no discovery. He 
came out declaring : 

"Dat box am empty ob eberyting but straw an' 
fitin' hens." 

His hand had come in contact with the face and 
limbs of La Roy. He certainly knew that the fugi- 
tive was in that box, but young as he was he kept 
his own counsel. He was a quadroon twelve years 
old, and a special favorite of Dilsie's. That same 
evening he approached Dilsie and quietly said : 

"Dilsie, y ou's been good to me, an' I b'leve dat 



tupei.o. 555 

it's right to do good to dem what duzgood to you, so 
I saved yer husband's life fcr you." 

Dilsie looked up in alarm and said, "Why, Sar- 
nera, what do you mean?" 

"Oh," said he, "I node Roy was in dat box in de 
chicken-coop, 'cause why, I feeled urn, but duz yer 
tink ize gwine ter tell an' let dem dogs kill um? 
No, sur, I'd dide fust. I give Roy's ear a good pull 
to let him no I node he wuz dar, an' needn't be 
afeard ob me a tellin'. Xow, Aunt Dilsie, give me a 
cooky." 

"Yes, you shall have a dozen." 

"O, glory ! duz you mean it?" 

"Yes, I do, and I'll trust you to help me to save 
Roy." 

"Yes, I will, you may 'pend on me." 

It is only necessary to say further that Lc Roy was 
concealed for a month on the general's premises, till 
the search for him was abandoned. lie then made 
his way to Ripley, was received by friends who in- 
formed him of my whereabouts. He visited me. I 
advanced him money, and passing himself for a white 
man (he was white) he purchased some land near 
Tuscumbia, Alabama. With great difficulty and risk 
I succeeded in abducting his wife and child.. On his 
land he lived happily with them, securing the respect 
of his neighbors and the esteem of his brethren in 
the church, of which himself and wife became mem- 
bers. When I removed to Choctaw county he sold 
out his farm, and purchasing a few acres of land in 



556 TUPELO. 

this county, he located near me. He now lives near 
Los Angeles, California. He has become wealthy, 
and he has given his children a good education. He 
has six children, three boys and three girls. One of 
his sons (named for me) is a lawyer, one a physician. 
One daughter, Minnie, is married. Her husband is 
a state senator. Le Roy was a half brother of Dr. 
Bailie Peyton. His mother, though white, was a 
slave and the mistress of the doctor's father. Such 
is slavery in itself. Is it any wonder that Thomas 
(}rimk6 expressed a willingness to serve me to the 
extent of his ability and at the risk of his life. Le 
Roy assumed this name by my direction to conceal 
his identity. He intends, if his life is spared, to 
visit me next spring. The above episode is true, ex- 
cept a change of names in some instances. 
Dallas, Marshall County, West Virginia. 



MASSACRE OF TEXAN UNIONISTS. 

From the time when Twiggs betrayed Texas into 
the hands of the Confederates, the loyal people of that 
state suffered intensely from the cruelties of the in- 
surgents. In Western Texas, where there were few 
slave-holders, and consequently more patriotism, the 
Union element was very strong and pertinacious, 
and the inhabitants were both hated and feared by 
the banditti of the conspirators, who moved over the 
country with fire and rope, to destroy property and 
strangle loyal citizens. The sufferings of the Texas 



TUPELO. 557 

loyalists were intensified carl)- in the summer of 
1862, after the reverses of the Confederates in Tenn- 
essee, when Texas was placed under martial law. 
The country was scoured by guerrilla bands, win (com- 
mitted the most atrocious crimes, robbing and mur- 
dering all who were suspected of being friends of 
their country. Great numbers of the loyalists at- 
tempted to flee from the state to Mexico, singly and 
in small parties. The earlier fugitives escaped, but 
a greater portion were captured by the guerrillas and 
murdered. One of the organs of the conspirators 
(San Antonio Herald) said exultingly, "Their bones 
are bleaching on the soil of every county from Red 
River to the Rio Grande, and in the counties of Wise 
and Denton their bodies are suspended by scores 
from the Black Jacks." 

A notable and representative instance of the treat- 
ment received by the Texan loyalists at the hands of 
their oppressors is found in the narrative of an attempt 
of about sixty of them, mostly young Germans belong- 
ing to the best families in western Texas, to leave the 
country. They collected at Fredericksburg, on the 
frontier, intending to make their way to New Orleans 
by way of Mexico, and join the national army. On 
the night of the ninth of August they encamped on 
the edge of a cedar brake, on the Neuces river, about 
forty miles from the Rio Grande. They had moved 
with such secrecy that they scarcely felt any appre- 
hension of danger from the guerrillas who were scour- 
ing the country, with orders to kill all Unionists. Hut 



558 TUPELO. 

they were betrayed, and a leader named Duff (see page 
343 of Tupelo) sent over one hundred men to sur- 
prise and destroy them. At near daylight they ap- 
proached the camp, and captured one of the party. 
His life was offered him as a reward, if he would 
lead them to the camp of his companions. He re- 
fused and was hanged. The guerrillas then fell upon 
the patriots, who were sleeping. A desperate strug- 
gle ensued, and at length, opposed by overwhelming 
numbers and superior weapons, the Unionists were 
conquered, but not till two-thirds of their number 
were killed or wounded. The survivors fled toward 
the Rio Grande. Some escaped, and others were 
captured, tortured, and hung. The wounded already 
in the hands of the insurgents were murdered in the 
most barbarous manner, by bullets, bayonets, bowie- 
knives, and hanging. Some who were actually 
dying were dragged to trees and hung by the fiends. 
The commander of the butchers, Lieutenant Lil- 
ley, afterward boasted that he killed several of the 
wounded with his own hands, emptying two revolv- 
ers in shooting them. The lives of forty of the sixty 
young men were sacrificed, at an expense to the mur- 
derers of right killed and fourteen wounded in the 
battle. When the banner of the Republic gave pro- 
tection to the loyalists of Texas, three years later, 
measures were taken to collect the remains of the 
slain, and bury them. This was accomplished, and 
a fine monument was erected to their memory. — 
"The Civil War in America," by B. J. Lossing, 
Vol. II., page 537. 



tupelo. 559 

the purity of the ballot. 

From republican platform, 1888: 

"We re-affirm our unswerving devotion to the na- 
tional constitution and to the indissoluble union of 
the states; to the autonomy reserved to the states 
under the constitution ; to the personal rights and 
liberties of citizens in all the states and territories in 
the Union, and especially to the supreme and sover- 
eign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native 
or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot 
in public elections and to have that ballot duly counted. 
We hold the free and honest popular ballot and the 
just and equal representation of all the people to be 
the foundation of our republican government, and 
demand effective legislation to secure the integrity 
and purity of elections, which are the fountains of 
all public authority. We charge that the present 
administration and the democratic majority in con- 
gress owe their existence to the suppression of the 
ballot by a criminal nullification of the constitution 
and laws of the United States." 

From democratic platform, 1888 : 

"Chief among its principles of party faith are the 
maintenance of an indissoluble union of free and in- 
destructible states, now about to enter upon its sec- 
ond century of unexampled progress and renown, 
devotion to a plan of government regulated by a 
written constitution strictly specifying every granted 



560 TUPELO. 

power and expressly reserving to the states or people 
the entire ungranted residue of power; the encour- 
agement of a jealous popular vigilance, directed to' 
all who have been chosen for brief terms to enact and 
execute the laws, and are charged with the duty of 
preserving peace, ensuring equality, and establishing 
justice." ( 

PRISONER'S HOPE. 

TRAMP ! TKAMP ! TRAMP ! 

In the prison cell I sit, 

Thinking, mother dear, of you, 
And our bright and happy home so far away ; 

And the tears, they fill my eyes, 
Spite of all that I can do, 

Tho' I try to cheer my comrades, and be gay. 

Tramp ! tramp ! tramp ! the boys are marching, 

Cheer up, comrades, they will come, 
And beneath the starry flag 

AVe shall breathe the air again, 
Of the free land in our own beloved home. 

In the battle front we stood, 

"When their fiercest charge they made, 
And they swept us off a hundred men or more, 

But before we reach'd their lines, 
They were beaten back dismayed, 

And we heard the cry of vict'ry o'er and o'er. 
Tramp ! tramp ! tramp ! etc. 

So within the prison cell, 

We are waiting for the day, 
That shall come to open wide the iron door ; 

And the hollow eye grows bright, 
And the poor heart almost gay, 

As we think of seeing home and friends once more. 
Tramp ! tramp ! tramp ! etc. 



TUPELO. 561 



JOHN BROWN, OF OSAWATOMIE, KANSAS. 

John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, 

"While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to 

save. 
And though h^ lost his life in struggling for the slave. 
His soul is marching on. 

Chorus — Glory, Hallelujah ! 

John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave. 
Kansas knew his valor when he fought her rights to save, 
And though the grass grows green above his northern grave, 
His soul is marching on. 

Chorus— Glory, Hallelujah ! 

He captured Harper's Ferry, with his nineteen men so few, 
And frightened old Virginia till she trembled through and 

through. 
They hung him for a traitor — themselves a traitor crew, 
But his soul is marching on. 

CHORUS — Glory, Hallelujah ! 

The conflict that he heralded, he looks from heaven to view, 
On the army of the Union, with her flag red, white, and blue 
And heaven shall ring with anthems o'er the deeds we mean 
to do, 
As we go marching on. 

Chorus — Glory, Hallelujah ! 

O soldiers of Columbia, then strike, while strike you may 
The death-blow of oppression in this better time and way. 
And the dawn of old John Brown will. brighten into day, 
As we go marching on. 

Chorus — Glory, Hallelujah ! 

New Athens, Harrison Co., Ohio. 

36 



5(5'2 TUPELO. 



MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA. 

Bring the good old bugle, boys ! we'll sing another song — 
Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along — 
Sing it as we used to sing it, fifty thousand strong, 
While we were marching through Georgia. 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! we bring the Jubilee ! 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! the flag that makes you free ! 
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea, 

While we were marching through Georgia. 

How the darkeys shouted when they heard the joyful sound ! 
How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found ! 
How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground, 
While we were marching through Georgia. 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! etc. 

Yes, and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears 
When they saw the honor'd flag they had not seen for years ; 
And they could not be restrained from breaking forth in 
cheers, 
While we were marching through Georgia. 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! etc. 

" Sherman's dashing Yankee boys will never reach the coast!" 
So the saucy rebels said, and 'twas a handsome boast, 
Had they not forgot, alas ! to reckon with the host, 
While we were marching through Georgia. 

Hurrah ! hurrah! etc. 

So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train, 
Sixty miles in latitude — three hundred to the main ; 
Treason fled before us, (or resistance was in vain, 
While we were marching through Georgia. 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! etc. 



TUPELO. 563 

DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 

In the volume entitled "Distinctive Principles of 
the Southern Presbyterian Church," published by 
the committee of publication, the General Assembly 
declare : 

"Although the existence of slavery has terminated, 
yet it is necessary to hold as an article of faith the 
belief that slavery or the holding of human beings 
as chattels is a dogma in accord with scriptural truth, 
and inasmuch as this doctrine has lost nothing of 
its importance as a question of social morality and 
scriptural truth, and since the contrary opinion is 
unscriptural and fanatical, and is one of the most 
jDernicious heresies of modern times, its countenance 
by any church is a just cause of separation from it 
(I. Tim. vi. 1-5). We have surely said enough to 
warn our people away from this insidious error as 
from a fatal shore." Thus we sec that a belief in 
the divine right of the slave-holder to defraud his 
fellow-man of his inalienable right to the enjoyment 
of that inestimable boon, liberty, is made a term of 
communion by the Southern church, and is enunci- 
ated as one of the distinctive principles of that or- 
ganization. 

The address of 1861, found in the same volume, 
declares, "As to the endless declaration about human 
rights, we have only to say that human rights are not 
a fixed but fluctuating quantity. They should be 
graduated according to the capacity and culture of 



5G4 TUPELO 

the individual." This dogma enunciated in defense 
of human bondage by the Southern General Assem- 
bly would reduce to chattel slavery all the illiterates 
in the Southern States, both white and black, mulat- 
toes, quadroons, and octoroons. It would also jus- 
tify the assumption by the North of many rights 
denied by this standard to their less capable and less 
cultured Southern brethren. This boomerang dogma 
would confer the right upon the North to hold in vas- 
salage the majority of the Southern people. The 
Southern church denounce views hostile to slavery as a 
corruption of the word of God, and as " the intuitions of 
an infidel philosophy," and declare that they will not 
" break communion with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., 
who have gone to heaven from a slave-holding coun- 
try and a slave-holding church." How they differ 
from John Bunyan, who says: "That a saint might 
keep a seraglio because Solomon had one, lie because 
the godly mid-wives of Egypt lied, and defraud be- 
cause Jacob defrauded, practice concubinage and be 
guilty of slave-holding because Abraham had a con- 
cubine and held slaves, is an opinion not fit to be 
with any allowance in the world." Thomas Jeffer- 
son and our patriotic ancestors held a very different 
view as to human rights, as expressed in the Declara- 
tion of Independence : " We hold these truths to be 
self-evident, that all men are created equal and are 
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights, among which arc life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness." Henry Clay said, "I am no friend 



TUPELO. 565 

to slavery," and by his will manumitted his slaves. 
General Washington said, " I wish from my soul 
that the legislature of this state (Virginia) could see 
the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery. It 
might prevent much future mischief." Lawrence 
Sterne said, with truth, "Disguise thyself as thou 
wilt, still, slavery, said I, still thou art a bitter 
draught." 

Another distinctive principle enunciated by the 
Southern General Assembly is, "The relation of the 
church of Christ to civil governments is not one de 
jure but de facto. Whether right or wrong, the at- 
titude of the church toward them is the same. As 
long as they stand and are acknowledged, obedience 
is to be enjoined as a duty, factious resistance con- 
demned as a sin." If all Southern Christians had 
scrupulously adhered to this rule they would have 
been guiltless of complicity in precipitating the most 
unnecessary, cruel, and wicked rebellion known in 
the history of the world. But, alas, they did not. 
Southern Presbyterians aided and abetted the rebell- 
ion from its incipieney to its culmination. They 
fanned the sparks of civil strife till they blazed out 
in lambent "flames, enveloping the sacred edifice of 
our country's liberties, which were only extinguished 
by the loyal Christians and patriots of the country, 
North and South, with the sacrifice of a mighty host 
of heroic martyrs, and by the destruction of the in- 
cendiaries who desired to destroy the temple of free- 
dom and erect upon its ruins a fane whose corner- 



566 TUPELO. 

stone was to be human bondage. The Northern church 
does not believe in any dubious loyalty. They do 
not believe in enjoining upon those under their juris- 
diction obedience to God or the devil, whichever for 
the time holds governmental control. "They recog- 
nize the powers that be, which are ordained of God/' 
as the dcjure government that rules in righteousness, 
and not the de facto government that may gain a 
temporary control while attempting to overthrow the 
ordinance of heaven. An intelligent obedience is 
enjoined, which will sustain the righteous cause and 
subvert the de facto usurpation in the interests of 
slavery and its father, the devil. 

The Southern General Assembly, after a long dis- 
sertation on the divinity of slavery, and a declara- 
tion that a contrary view held by any other church 
is unscriptural and fanatical, one of the most perni- 
cious heresies of modern times, and is a just cause of 
separation from it, makes this astounding announce- 
ment : "We would have it distinctly understood 
that in our ecclesiastical capacity Ave are neither the 
friends nor foes of slaverv. We have no right as a 
church, to enjoin it as a duty or condemn ]t as a sin." 
And yet those who seek communion with them must 
believe in slavery per se or be rejected. Slavery per se ! 
Well, I have seen slavery per se, if it has ever had 
any existence in that form. I have seen it in eight 
slave states, and during eleven years in the ante 
helium days — the palmy days of slavery — among a 
professedly Christian people. I have seen the tears 



TUPELO. 561 

and heard the groans of its victims as they bled un- 
der the lash of their cruel oppressors. I have heard 
their supplications ascending- to heaven for deliver- 
ance, and if this was slavery per se I would, if its 
fate had been left to my judgment, have consigned it 
to the lowest hell. Ah! there never was a Utopian 
slavery per se so sinless and so free from horror, bar- 
barity, and cruelty, and so righteous and humane, as 
to meet the approval of heaven. 

Would any Southern church or presbytery dare at 
this late day, in this the millennial dawn, ask an 
applicant for admission to one of their presbyteries 
or churches, Do you believe in slavery per sef Do 
you believe that the relation of the church to the 
state is a de facto and not a de jure relation? Al- 
though their General Assembly proclaims these views 
as "distinctive principles," and the first virtually as 
a term of communion, yet none of the churches un- 
der its jurisdiction would so insult the common sense 
of the applicant or stultify themselves as to ask these 
questions. Many of their presbyteries and synods vir- 
tually declared the Confederate government the dejure 
government, and the General Assembly having review 
and control, took no exception to the records. 
withstanding thosi ive "distinctive princi] 

the custom of the Southern churches and presbyteries 
is to receive applicants from other bodies upon the 
face of their credentials. Must the foul corpse of 
slavery 'per se and the putrid cadaver of the defunct 
de facto Southern Confederacy be held up in all their 



568 . TUPELO. 

distorted deformity and ghastly hideousness by the 
spiritual bourbons of the southern church in every 
General Assembly before the startled gaze of those 
■who come to them bearing the olive branch of peace 
and unity, with the cry, "Do you believe in these dog- 
ma*? DO YOU BELIEVE IN THESE DOGMAS? for 
those are the shibboleths by which we test your spir- 
ituality and your fidelity to Christ's crown and king- 
dom? If you do not believe in these dogmas, away 
with you ! we know you to be fanatical and most 
perniciously heretical, and we will not leave for yours 
the communion of Abraham, Samson, Solomon, etc., 
who went to heaven from a slave-holding (and polyg- 
amous) country and church." After the few sur- 
viving custodians of these offensive remains are buried 
with them, none will be found Avilling to resurrect 
and parade before the church and the world that 
which is the bar sinister upon the southern escutch- 
eon, and then reunion in all its fullness and blessed- 
ness will be speedily accomplished, and the reunited 
church will enter upon a mission more noble than 
the conservation of issues dead, and damned by the 
united voice of Christendom. 

Fairview, Luzerne Co., Pa., Oct. 10, 1S88. 



CREED OF ALL ORTHODOX CHURCHES. 

1. The divine inspiration, authority, and suffi- 
ciency of the Holy Scriptures. 

2. The right and duty of private judgment in the 
interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. 



tupelo: 569 

3. The Unity of the Godhead and the Trinity of 
the persons therein. 

4. The utter depravity of human nature in conse- 
quence of the fall. 

5. The incarnation of the Son of ( !<>d. His work 
of atonement for the sins of mankind, and his medi- 
atorial intercession and reign, 

6. The justification of the sinner by faith alone. 

7. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion 
and sanctification of the sinner. 

8. The obligation to keep holy one day in seven, 
the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the 
body, the judgment of the world by our Lord Jesus 
Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous 
and the eternal punishment of the wicked. 

9. The divine institution of the Christian minis- 
try, and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordi- 
nances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

St. Louis, Mo. 



THE LAW OF REVIVALS. 

Have we a reasonable hope of a revival, if we look 
for it, and pray for it, and work for it according to 
God's plan and in his way? Law is that which is 
set, laidjOV fixed — the regular method or sequence by 
which certain phenomena or effects follow- certain 
conditions or causes — the uniform methods or rela- 
tions according to which material and mental forces 
act in producing effects. God is the author of all 
law, whether written or unwritten, whether physical 



570 TUPELO. 

or spiritual. Law is the established mode of divine 
operation, whether in nature or grace. As Hooker 
says, " Her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the 
harmony of the world." Dr. Chalmers says, " Pre- 
sent the Deity with the same conditions, and he is 
certain to act in the same way." We know that 
everything in the universe is under law. God is a 
God of law and order, and does not act capriciously 
or arbitrarily. Has he any law governing the phe- 
nomena which we call revivals? If so, has he made 
known this law? Have we any agency in producing 
them? or do they occur as the cyclone, the earth- 
quake, or revival of nature in the spring, without 
any agency of ours? If so, then we have no respon- 
sibility in the matter. We cannot hasten the coming 
on of the spring ; God revives nature when he pleases. 
We simply wait his pleasure, and then co-operate 
with him by preparing the soil and putting in the 
seed. But is this true in a spiritual revival? Have 
we nothing to do in bringing about a revival in the 
church? Are we to wait for God to come and revive 
his work ? No one will say this but a fatalist. We 
must find out the conditions upon which he promises 
to revive his work, and comply with them, if we ex- 
pect his blessing. As the elder Edwards says, 
"Whenever God is about to bestow any great bless- 
ing upon a people, he sets them to praying for it." 
True revivals are not got up — they are got down. 
"O! Lord, revive thy work." This prayer begins 
to be offered from the heart by some Christian in a 



TUPELO. .".71 

church before every true revival. "It is time to seek 
the Lord till lie come." "If my people who are 
called by my name will humble themselves and pray, 
and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, 
then 'will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their 
sins and will heal their land.'' Here is God's law of 
revival clearly set forth. It never fails when honestly 
complied with on the part of his children. 
Leavenworth, Crawford Co., Indiana. 



THE CHURCH— WHAT THE CHURCHES BELIEVE IN 
REGARD TO TEMPERANCE. 

REFORMED CHURCH. 

Whereas, Moral suasion and temperance soci- 
eties of themselves have not been able to suppress the 
wicked traffic, and to tax the sale for purposes of 
revenue would be to do evil that good might accrue, 
or to raise revenue from an iniquitous traffic would 
be to legalize iniquity; therefore, 

Resolved, That the only true and proper remedy 
for the gigantic evil is prohibition. 

THE BAPTISTS. 

That intemperance is inconsistent with Christianity! 
and as the liquor power is threatening our National 

honor, invading our homes, and breaking down our 
Christian Sabbath by its opposition to all laws, both 
human and divine, it becomes the duty of every 
Christian to direct his powers of persuasion, prayers, 
efforts, and votes to entirely destroy said traffic, :md 



572 TUPELO. 

brand it with its true name as a crime against the 
best interests of humanity. 

UNITED BRETHREN. 

* * All laws for the regulation of such a wrong 
are in violation of the divine laws, and are promoters 
of evil deeds. * * * Not only should our peo- 
ple totally abstain, but in their capacity as Christian 
citizens they should vote for such persons only as are 
temperate themselves and will use all proper means 
for the prohibition of this unholy traffic. 

LANCASTER (o.) CONFERENCE. 

Whether under the name of license or tax, wc 
hereby record our unalterable opposition to a legis- 
lated traffic in the souls of our fellow-men. Wc 
earnestly advise all our preachers and people to sup- 
port no party that does not pronounce for the sup- 
pression of the saloon; and to vote for no candidate 
who, through fear or policy, is unwilling to pledge 
his support to the principle of prohibition. 

PRESBYTERI A N 8. 

That the entire extinction of the manufacture and 
sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is the 
goal to which the General Assembly looks forward, 
and for the accomplishment of which it expects the 
earnest, united, determined, and persistent labors of 
its ministers and people. 

THE LUTHERANS. 

We will support only such party through which 



TUPELO. 573 

we believe Ave ean secure prohibitory laws, and we 
are determined that we will not lay down our arms 
until the banner of Constitutional and Statutory 
Prohibition will float victoriously over Stale and 
Nation. 

CHRISTIAN. 

Resolved, That for years we have prayed for prohi- 
bition, and that hereafter we will vote as we pray. 
Also that we will not only vote and pray, but preach 
and work for the success of the Prohibition party. — 
Central Illinois Conference. 

THE METHODISTS. 

We are unalterably opposed to the enactment of 
laws that propose by license, taxing, or otherwise to 
regulate the drink traffic, because they provide for its 
continuance and afford no protection against its rava- 
ges. We hold that the proper attitude of all Chris- 
tians toward this traffic is one of uncompromising 
opposition; and while we do not presume to dictate 
to our people as to their political affiliations, we do 
express the opinion that they should not allow them- 
selves to be controlled by party organizations that 
are managed in the interest of the drink traffic. 

UNITED PRESBYTERIANS. 

Resolved, That this assembly is for prohibition 
first, last, and always; that prohibition's power for 
good is so manifest in Topeka, the capital city of 
Kansas, that this alone justifies us in our opposition; 
that there can be no compromise with this evil ; that 



574 TUPELO. 

absolute, unconditional prohibition is the end at which 
we should aim and the ultimatum which alone we are 
willing to accept. 

QUAKERS. 

We are opposed to any system of license or taxa- 
tion, because any such system is a compromise with 
sin, and not only provides for the continuance of the 
traffic, but also makes us partners in its profits and 
its results. We favor personal total abstinence from 
intoxicants, and the enactment and enforcement of 
constitutional laws abolishing the traffic, and Ave are 
fully convinced that such enactment and enforcement 
will be effected only by a party that shall openly 
avow prohibition as a fundamental principle. 

WESLEYANS. 

Whereas, The Prohibition party, that proposes 
the destruction of the saloon business, is in harmony 
with the advice of our discipline; therefore, 

Resolved, That we will work and vote with this 
party; that we recommend all onr churches and peo- 
ple to honestly investigate for themselves, and not 
depend on the dominant party organs for information 
as to how a Christian and temperance man shall vote 
on the temperance question, knowing that we owe cur 
first duty to God. — Central Ohio Conference. 



The democratic party is unwilling to protect the 
negro in the southern states in his right to vote and 
have his vote counted, and the republican party is 



TUPELO. 576 

unable to secure for him that right. It is only 
through the prohibition party that lie can obtain it, 
by marching through the divided lines to a tree ballot 
and fair count. — Clinton J>. Fisk. 



Sermon preached by Rev. John II. Aughey in the 
Presbyterian Church of French Camp, Miss., in the 
year 18G0 and repeated in Nazareth Church, Attala 
county, Miss. 

The text is recorded in Romans xiii. 1: "Let every 
soul be subject unto the high powers, for there is no 
power but of God. The powers that be are ordained 
of God." 

Loyalty to the government is obedience to God, for 
God has commanded it. Governments were ordained 
by the Almighty for wise and beneficent purposes. 
Without government there would be anarchy, and a 
more awful state of society could not exist than for ev- 
ery man to do that which seems right in his own eves. 
There would be no protection for life and property. 
Men would be governed by the principle that might 
makes right, and the weak would be wholly at the 
mercy of the strong. Society could not long exist in 
this chaotic state. Its foundations would be over- 
thrown speedily, and barbarism of the rudest form 
would supplant civilization. Governments are or- 
dained by God to be a terror to evil doers and for the 
praise orapproval and protection of them thai do well. 
This is done in the providence of God by the agency 



576 TUPELO. 

of man. Though nations are established by man, in- 
strumental ly it is done by the determinate counsel 
and foreknowledge of God, who determines the times 
before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, 
and has made all their inhabitants of one blood. 
Jacob, when dying, revealed by the spirit of prophesy 
the precise locality of the inheritance of each tribe 
and its territorial limits, hundreds of years before it 
entered upon its possession in the land of promise, 
even though the inheritance after the conquest of 
Canaan fell to each tribe by lot. God imbues man 
with the wisdom to perceive the necessity and desira- 
bleness of authority to restrain the vicious and law- 
less element found in every society. This authority 
is conferred upon certain individuals by a vote of the 
people, who thus become magistrates, and in this way 
government is established. The preamble to the 
constitution of our country clearly states the objects 
for which our government exists and for which our 
constitution was framed, ordained, and established. 
" We, the people of the United States, in order to form 
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domes- 
tic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro- 
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain 
and establish this constitution." Our government has 
not been negligent of duty. All the above ends have 
been accomplished. All the duties enumerated have 
been performed, and a degree of prosperity unparal- 
leled in the history of nations has been secured. 



TUPELO. 077 

The late presidential election was conducted under 
a strict observance of all the forms of the constitu- 
tion. It was participated in by all the state- — even 
belligerent South Carolina held an election without 
protest, and sent the returns to Washington. Should 
we repudiate a result to which by voting we have 
made ourselves parties? Should we make this fair, 
peaceful, and constitutional election a pretext for 
subverting the traditions of the past, the lame of our 
illustrious ancestors, the respect of other nations, the 
glory of the present, the hope of the future, the des- 
tiny ordained by heaven for our nation of being an 
asylum for the oppressed and a perpetual bulwark ol 
defence against encroachments upon human liberty 
and the rights of man? I speak for myself. I for 
one, so help me God, will never become a party to 
the subversion of all the interests dear to every 
patriotic heart — interests that are linked indissolubly 
with our national unity and integrity. 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina, 
in the legislature of his state, in 1788, during the 
debates on the adoption of the constitution, said : 
"This admirable manifesto, the Declaration of In- 
dependence, sufficiently refutes the doctrine of the 
individual sovereignty and independence of the sev- 
eral states. In no part of it are the several states 
mentioned by name, as if it Mas intended to impress 
the maxim upon America that our freedom and inde- 
pendence arose from our union, and that without it 
we never could be free and independent. Let us 
37 



578 tupei.o. 

consider all attempts to weaken this union by main- 
taining that each state is separately and individually 
independent as a species of political heresy which 
can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most 
serious distresses." 

If the Declaration of Independence refutes state 
sovereignty in the ultra sense, much more the con- 
stitution, which vests all the attributes of sovereignty 
in the national government, and which does this, not 
by the act of the individual state, but by that of the 
people of the United States. The constitution was 
submitted for adoption not to the legislatures of the 
several states, but to the people in convention assem- 
bled. It was unavoidable that the people should act 
by states since that was the only mode of combined 
action in their power. A constitution thus adopted 
is paramount and of perpetual obligation. There 
can be no withdrawal except by the inalienable right 
of revolution, and this should not be resorted to for 
light and transient causes. 

The question was debated in the convention 
whether the federal or national plan should be 
adopted. Mr. Randolph said a national government 
alone properly constituted will answer the purpose. 
This question was discussed several days. When 
brought to a vote, the national plan was adopted. 
The issue was clearly stated so that no misapprehen- 
sion should exist. The constitution was sent with in- 
structions that the people were required to ratify it 
" in toto, unconditionally, and forever." And thus it 



TUPELO. 579 

was ratified. Those who advocate secession tell us 
that the states that constituted our government were 
free, sovereign, and independent nationalities, and as 
such have a right to withdraw from the government 
at will. Free, sovereign, and independent individu- 
als constituted the state governments and by parity 
of reasoning have a right to consult their own inter- 
est or pleasure and to withdraw at will from the state 
government which they created. West Airginians 
and East Tennesseeans threaten to do this if those 
states should secede. This right you deny them with 
acerbity. A government thus bound together with 
a rope of sand without cohesion in its parts, whose 
laws may be nullified and whose authority may be 
renounced at any time by the free, sovereign, and 
independent individuals or states composing it, is 
inefficient and powerless for good, the sport of 
caprice, unworthy of respect, wholly at the mercy of 
demagogues, the scorn, derision, and contempt of 
Stable governments, without credit, a mere shadow 
without substance, the tennis ball of politicians, a 
bubble ready to burst at any moment. So feeble 
that slavery or the protective measures devised to 
promote domestic industry could demolish it, the ob- 
ject of threat and menace by the communist and the 
nihilist. When Israel was rent in twain it was of 
the Lord to punish their idolatry. If they should 
return unto the Lord he promises, in Ezekiel xxxvii. 
22, to make them one nation in the land. The evil 
of being two nations, belligerent and envious of each 



580 TUPELO. 

other, was great, as their history after their division 
conclusively proves. If* there should be fifty sover- 
eign and independent nations within the area em- 
braced by the United States of America, with clash- 
ing interests and standing armies and navies upon a 
war footing, and ruinous customs and duties, and a 
host of officials and oppressive taxation, we would 
sigh in anguish of soul for the government we had 
in our wantonness, folly, and wickedness overthrown. 

I believe in state sovereignty. I believe also in 
national supremacy. The constitution of the United 
States is the bond of Federal union. It was framed 
by our fathers with a wisdom akin to inspiration. 
It is a charter of liberty to be construed liberally so 
as to carry out all the beneficent objects of the good 
and wise government which its framers designed to 
establish. The government of the United States is 
a national government, with general powers, supreme 
within the limit of those powers, and with a Federal 
court selected as the sole final tribunal to pass upon 
the limits and extent of those powers. 

The states are the agents of the people for local 
purposes precisely as the general government is the 
agent of the people for national purposes. State 
rights as distinguished from national authority has 
been a dangerous and disturbing element in Ameri- 
can politics. To the people at large both state and 
nation are convenient agencies for the exercise of dis- 
tinct and separate powers to promote the common 
good. To the individual citizen they are the guar- 



TUPELO. 581 

dians of distinct and separate rights and privileges, 
for which we owe allegiance and duty. 

Their functions pertain to different spheres and in 
their exercise there is no conflict and needs be none. 
Let us love our state with an ardent love and our 
sister states with an equal love, for we are all children 
of our common parent, the government of the 
United States. Our sister states are not so many 
foreign nations with whom we have no relation, 
except through a temporary league subject to disso- 
lution at will, but we as states are all integral parts 
of a great nation bound together by indissoluble tie.-. 
Let us ever pray that no weapon formed against her 
shall prosper. Perish the hand that would with parri- 
cidal intent aim a blow at our national unity and in- 
tegrity. Our country by its physical features seems to 
be fitted for but one nation. What ceaseless trouble 
would be caused by having the sources of our rivers 
in one country and their mouths in another, and in 
their courses passing through a dozen or more for- 
eign nations, with diverse interests and hostile inhab- 
itants. We are all descended from a common pa- 
rentage; we all speak the same language ; we arc all 
believers in the Christian religion; Ave all believe in a 
republican form of government ; we are all willing to 
sacrifice our lives if necessary to preserve our inalien- 
able rights of life and liberty. We have really no 
conflicting interests, the statement- of sumo of our 
astute politicians to the contrary notwithstanding. 
In revealing to von the whole counsel of God and 



582 TUPELO. 

thus acquitting my conscience I declare it to be my 
firm conviction that you should vote against secession, 
and if necessary fight against all those miscreants 
who would subvert the government of our nation, 
under whose beneficent sway we have so greatly 
prospered. Our progress in all that constitutes true 
greatness and material prosperity are unparalleled in 
the history of nations. Why with malice prepense 
should we play the fool by destroying the source of 
all our political blessings. Secession and treason are 
convertible terms. Let us not be guilty of rebellion 
against the ordinance of God, the powers that be, and 
thus bring upon us the wrath of an offended and sin- 
avenging Jehovah, who will not lightly pass over so 
great a crime. We as a nation may be under the 
wrath of an offended God because of our national 
sins unrepented of, but God, who is long suffering 
and of tender compassion does not ordinarily destroy 
a nation within the first century of its existence. 
Even though its sins are heinous, a longer probation 
is accorded. He may punish us, but I trust not 
with so terrible and disastrous a punishment as the 
destruction of our government, which is the pal- 
ladium of our liberty and prosperity, and the pres- 
ervation of whose integrity is so dear to the heart of 
every loyal citizen and true patriot and friend of 
good government. All should regard the Union as 
inviolable and perpetual, and that all grievances must 
be redressed within the Union, by remedies which 
respect its integrity. 



TUPELO. 383 

If there is a difference of opinion as to the con- 
stitutionality of a Federal law the supreme court of 
the United States determines the question. This 
right is not accorded to any state. 

South Carolina has usurped the prerogative of the 
supreme court. Her act is unconstitutional and void, 
and may result in a bloody fratricidal civil war. 
This will doubtless be the result if she should persist 
in her wayward and wicked course. This tiny slate 
has declared secession to be constitutional, and with- 
out consulting her sister states or waiting longer for 
co operation, may enact a secession ordinance. She 
docs not realize the enormity of her folly. 

What will the government do if she secedes? It 
may be pertinent to quote Sec. 2, Art. G of the con- 
stitution of the United States: "This constitution 
and the laws of the United States and the laws which 
may be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties 
made or which shall be made under the authority of 
the United States, shall be the supreme law of tin- 
land, and the judges in every state shall be bound 
thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any 
state to the contrary notwithstanding." 

Supremely silly and superlatively wicked South 
Carolina! Let us not imitate her folly and thus be- 
come partaker of her sin and consequent punishment 
if she should carry to a logical conclusion this initia- 
tory act of treason and rebellion against the nation 
and her own true interests. 

This is the language of Virginia uttered when she 



584 TUPELO. 

gave her adhesion to the general government : " The 
powers granted under the constitution being derived 
from the people of the United States may be resumed 
by them whenever the same shall be perverted to their 
injury or oppression." 

This makes it clearly evident that Virginia under- 
stood that separate state secession was inadmissible. 

The question is pertinent, has the general govern- 
ment perverted its powers to the injury or oppression 
of the southern people? Many seem to think that 
the general government was established solely to con- 
serve, perpetuate, and extend the institution of human 
slavery. Jefferson Davis formulates this idea in a 
speech delivered by him in Jackson, Miss., Sept. 3d, 
1858 : " If an abolitionist be chosen president you 
will have presented to you the question whether you 
will permit the government to pass into the hands of 
your avowed and implacable enemies. I will state 
my supposition to be that such a result would be 
a species of revolution by which the purposes of 
the government would be destroyed and the observ- 
ances of its mere forms entitled to no respect. In 
that event in such manner as should be most expedi- 
ent I should deem it your duty to provide for your 
safety outside of the union from those who have al- 
ready shown the will and would have acquired the 
power to deprive you of your birthright and reduce 
you to worse than the colonial dependence of your 
fathers." 

No more bitter denunciations of slavery were ever 



TUPELO. 585 

heard than those uttered by Thomas Jefferson and 
Mason and other southern statesmen at the very time 
of the formation of the constitution of the United 
States. It was Thomas Jefferson who introduced a 
resolution into the continental congress to the effect 
that after the year 1800 no slavery should exisl in 
any of the western territories nor on any soil not in- 
cluded within the established and ancient limits of I he 
states themselves. 

Slavery at this time was regarded as an inherited 
exotic, a legacy from the mother country, which con- 
ferred no benefit sufficient to compensate for its reproach 
and its disadvantages and as an institution which it 
would be necessary to tolerate but for a short time, 
as it was believed to be on the way to ultimate ex- 
tinction. The word slave does not occur in the con- 
stitution of the United States, and the question is de- 
batable whether the constitution of our country is 
a pro-slavery document. Slavery is the apple of 
discord dropped in the halls of legislation which 
threatens to let loose upon our country greater evils 
than were emitted from Pandora's 1 >« > x . The major- 
ity of our people have no personal interest in this 
matter. We are not slave owners. It isnotaques- 
tion between the North and the South but between 
•the slave-holder and the abolitionist. The border 
states are in greater danger of losing slaves by their 
proximity to the free states, yet they are far less easily 
excited upon this subjeel and far less revolutionary 
in spirit. Let us profit by their example, and pre- 



586 TUPELO. 

serve our dignity which is wofully compromised by 
threats, undue excitement, and the display of a mer- 
curial temperament. 

It is thought by many in the South that the 
church's mission is to foster the interests of our pecu- 
liar institution, and they advocate separation from the 
church in the free labor states because of their hostility 
to slavery. In 1818 our whole church, North and 
South, were a unit in the condemnation of human 
slavery. It is we that have changed, not they. 

General Washington, after enumerating the ines- 
timable blessings that flow from the National Union, 
declares: "These considerations speak a persuasive 
language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and 
exhibit the Union as a primary object of patriotic 
desire. This government, the offspring of our own 
choice, uninfluenced and unawed; adopted upon full 
investigation and mature deliberation; completely 
free in its principles, in the distribution of its pow- 
ers; uniting security with energy, and containing 
within itself a provision for its own amendment — 
has a just claim to your confidence and support. Re- 
spect for its authority, compliance with its laws, 
acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by 
the fundamental maxims of true liberty. 1 he very 
idea of the power and the right of the people to es- 
tablish government presupposes the duty of every 
individual to obey the established government. 

"The constitution, till changed by an explicit and 
authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obliga- 
tory upon all." 



TUPELO. 587 

Let us remember these words of the revered Wash- 
ington. 

Let us not, in the interests of an exotic institution 
engrafted upon the body politic by a despotic king 
while we were in colonial vassalage, basely attempt 
to subvert this fair fabric, this temple of liberty erected 
by our venerated fathers, at infinite cost, to secure 
for themselves and posterity a permanent refuge from 
oppression, together with all the inestimable blessings 
resulting from the possession of those inalienable 
human rights — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. 

Winona, Mississippi, December 16th, 1860. 



When a robber takes a man's money, he leaves the 
man's mind and body as strong and healthy as be- 
fore. But when the liquor seller takes it for intoxi- 
cating drinks he gives that which weakens the mind 
destroys the body, and corrupts the heart. Which 
is the worse robber? — Rev. J. C. Hogan. 



Many Unionists were murdered in and near Oak 
Vale, Mercer county, West Virginia, during the dark 
days of the rebellion. The bones of Frank Jour- 
nell, one of these martyrs, were found and buried 
July 4, 1888, by Rev. Art. L. Hughes and others, 
of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. The coffin was 
covered with black cloth, and a flag, with some choice 
flowers, were placed upon the grave. The religions 
services were conducted by Mr. Hughe-, and a brief 



588 TUPELO. 

history of the man and his cowardly murder was 
given by Hon. George Evans, of this place. * * 
The exercises were closed by R. E. Hughes reading 
a poem written for the occasion by Mary Dale Culver 
Evans : 

We'll cover them over, the bones of the dead; 
Bring laurels and myrtle to strew o'er his bed — 
The bones that were bleaching now honored shall be, 
By patriot hearts in the land of the free. 

Twice a decade of years had passed o'er his form, 
Full twenty long summers and winters of storm, 
Ere the lone spot was found where martyr he died, 
Cut down by assassins in manhood's full pride. 

He died for his country — the holiest cause — 
For Union, for Freedom, for Liberty's laws, 
When treason ran rampant and sought to destroy 
The gift of our fathers unmixed with alloy. 

The land next to heaven we prize as our own, 
Where religion and science twin sisters have grown. 
'Neath the stars and the stripes, we love as a friend 
The time-honored banner he sought to defend. 

Bring out from the forest the mouldering bones, 
From the gloom of the rock house, those sentinel stones, 
Mute witnesses they of the torturing pain 
When the victim to treason by ruffians was slain. 

Oh, cover them over and leave them to rest, 

With memorial honors over his breast; 

And rear a j ust tablet the story to tell 

To the youth of our country, the fate of Journell. 

— Wilkes-Barre Record. 

A colored minister thus illustrated faith : " Faith, 
my bredren, am to do whatever God tells you to do 
— leastways to try. Now if God was to tell me to 



TUPELO. 58 [) 



jump through dat stone wall, I'd jump at it. Jumpin 
at it belongs to me; goin' through belongs to God 
Almighty." 

Burnt Mills, Miss. 



THE COLORED PHILOSOPHER. 

Upon the hurricane deck of one of our gunboats 
an elderly darkey, with a very philosophical and retro- 
spective cast of countenance, squatted on his bundle, 
toasting his shins against the chimney, and apparently 
plunged into a state of profound meditation. Find- 
ing, upon inquiry, that he belonged to the Ninth 
Illinois, one of the most gallantly behaved and heav- 
ily losing regiments at the Fort Donaldson battle, I 
began to interrogate him upon the subject. 

" You were in the fight, Uncle?" 

" Had a little taste of it, sa." 

"Stood your ground, did you?" 

" No, sa ; I runs." 

"Run at the first fire, did you?" 

"Yes, sa, and would hab run sooner if I had node 
it was comin'." 

"That wasn't very creditable to your courage." 

"Massa, dat isn't in my line; cookiifs my profes- 
sion." 

" Well, but have you no regard for your reputa- 
tion?" 

"Reputation is nuffin to me by de side of life." 

"Do you consider your life worth more than other 
people's?" 



590 TUPELO. 

" It's worth more to me, sa." 

"Then you must value it very highly?" 

"Yes, sa, I does — more dan all dis world, more 
dan a million of dollars, sa; for what would dat be 
worth to a man wid de breath out of him? Self- 
preservation am de fust law wid me." 

"But why should you act upon a different rule 
from other men ? " 

"Because different men set different values upon 
their lives. Mine, sa, is not in de market." 

"But if you lost it you would have the satisfaction 
of knowing that you died for your country." 

" What satisfaction would dat be to me when de 
power of feeling was gone? " 

"Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?" 

"Nuffin whatever, sa; I regard dem as among de 
vanities." 

" If our soldiers were like you, traitors might have 
broken up the government without resistance." 

"Yes, sa; dere would hab been no help for it; but 
I reckon if dey was all like me de country would be 
safe." 

"Do you think any of your company would have 
missed you if you had been killed?" 

"May be not, sa; a dead white man ain't much to 
dcse sojers, much less a dead nigger. But I'd miss 
myself, and dat was de pint wid me." 

It is safe to say that the corpse of Uncle Pete will 
never darken the field of carnage. 

Petersburg, Pike Co., Indiana. 



TUPELO. 591 

THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN'S POSSIBLE 
DILEMMA. 

The Southern Church enjoins obedience to the de 
facto government upon all under its jurisdiction. If 
this is not accorded, the offender becomes obnoxious 
to ecclesiastical censure, even though his conscience, 
his judgment, and the true principles of patriotism 
and religion impel him to sustain the de jure govern- 
ment existing by divine right and engaged in the 
righteous endeavor to subvert the de facto usurpation. 
The Southern General Assembly, after the war, at one 
of its sessions recalled all deliverances enacted during 
the war that might be construed as offensive to the 
Northern Assembly, or that might be regarded as hav- 
ing a political bearing, yet, in their volume entitled 
Distinctive Principles of the Southern Church, pub- 
lished with the sanction of their General Assembly, 
they are spreading broadcast all those offensive and 
political deliverances. They should, in the interests 
of peace and consistency recall the "Distinctive Prin- 
ciples," as they embody much that is offensive and 
political. 



MY COUNTRY. 

I love my country's vine-clad hills, 
Her thousand bright and gushing rills, 

Her sunshine and her storms; 
Her rough and rugged rocks that rear, 
Their hoary heads high in the air, 

In wild, fantastic forms. 



592 TUPELO. 

I love her rivers deep and wide, 

Their mighty streams that seaward glide, 

To seek the ocean's breast; 
Her smiling fields, her flowery dales — 
Her shady dells, her pleasant vales, 

Abodes of peaceful rest. 

I love her forests, dark and lone, 
For there the wild bird's merry tone, 

I hear from morn to night; 
And lovelier flowers are there I ween, 
Then e'er in eastern lands were seen, 

In varied colors bright. 

Her forests and her valleys fair, 

Her flowers that scent the morning air, 

All have their charms for me; — 
But more I love my country's name, 
Those words that echo deathless fame, 

The Land of Liberty ! 



THE SHIP OF STATE. 

Thou too, sail on, O ship of State ! 
Sail on, oh Union, strong and great ! 
Humanity with all its fears, 
With all the hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate. 
We know what Master laid thy keel, 
What workman wrought thy ribs of steel, 

Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 
In what a forge, and what a heat, 

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope. 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock; 
'Tis of the wave, and not the rock; 
'Tis but the flapping of the sail, 
And not a rent made by the gale. 



TUPELO. 593 

Spite of rock and tempest roar 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea; 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears. 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 

Are all with thee — are all with thee. — Longfellow. 



IS ANOTHER CIVIL WAR IMMINENT".' 

AVe learn by the Atlanta Constitution, of Oct. 28, 
1888, that Mr. Henry W. Grady, of Atlanta, Ga., 
addressed twenty thousand applauding people in 
Dallas, Texas, Oct. 27, 1888. He thus alluded to 
Gen. Sherman : "Just now Gen. Sherman has said, 
and I honor him as a general : 'The negro must be 
allowed to vote, and his vote must be counted, other- 
wise, as sure as there is a God in heaven, you will 
have another war, more cruel than the last, when the 
torch and dagger will take the place of the muskets 
of well ordered battalions. Should the negro strike 
that blow in seeming justice there will be millions 
to assist them.' And this general took Johnston's 
sword in surrender ! He looked upon the thin and 
ragged battalions in gray, that for four years had 
held his teeming and heroic legions at bay. Facing 
them, he read their courage in their depleted ranks. 
When he found it in his heart to taunt these heroes 
with this threat, why, careless as he was twenty years 
ago with fire, he is even now more careless with his 
words," etc. 
38 



594 TUPELO. 

Again Mr. Grady says: "Many wise men bold 
that the white vote of the South should divide, the 
color line be beaten down, and the Southern States 
ranged on economic or moral questions, as interest or 
belief demands. I am compelled to dissent from this 
view. The worst thing, in my opinion, that could 
happen is, that the white people of the South should 
stand in opposing factions. Consider such a status. 
If the negroes were skillfully led, and leaders would 
not be lacking, it would give them the balance of 
power — a thing not to be considered. The hope of 
the South is in the clear and unmistakable domina- 
tion of the white race through the integrity of its own 
vote. The supremacy of the white race of the South 
must be maintained forever, because the white race 
is the superior race, and the domination of the negro 
race resisted at all points and at all hazards." From 
the above it is plain that Mr. Grady favors debarring 
the negro from the exercise of his constitutional right 
to vote and have his vote counted. He also holds 
that but one party should be tolerated in the South. 
These views are to be carried out "at all points and 
at all hazards." General Sherman is right, and civil 
war is inevitable -in the near future, and it will be a 
holy and justifiable war upon the part of those who 
resist these intolerable aggressions upon the civil 
rights of American citizens. Nothing can prevent 
a sanguinary civil contest except a change of views 
upon the part of the dominant party in the Southern 
States. The present willful, wayward, wicked advo- 



TUPELO. 595 

cacy of the nullification of an explicit article in the 
constitution of the United States will most certainly 
bring upon you, Mr. Grady, and the Southern people 
(it they foolishly approve your views and give them 
a practical bearing) the honors of an internecine 
war, more disastrous than the one evoked by dema- 
gogues in the futile attempt to subvert the republic 
in the interests of slavery, and many of your dupes 
will, in all probability, expiate; their offense upou the 
gallows. If, in the ante helium day-, the Southern 
people had hanged a few of the blatant oratorical 
advocates of nullification and secession, the late civil 
war would never have occurred. Let them now be- 
ware of demagogues who are advising them to 
attempt, or rather, continue, the nullification of ex- 
press articles in the constitution of the United State-, 
lest they precipitate a desolating revolution and rebel- 
lion. Those who soav the wind will reap the whirl- 
wind, cyclone, and tempest. 

The suppression of the colored vote (and that of 
the scalawags) by fraud, intimidation, and violence, 
of which some of the Southern people are guilty, 
and which you, Mr. Grady, approve and advise, is 
nullification of and rebellion against Federal laws, 
and those guilty of it ought to meet the doom of 
traitors speedily, ere they involve our beloved coun- 
try in the horrors of another civil and fratricidal 
war. The Southern people followed the advice of 
Yancey, to their sorrow. Let them beware of Grady, 
or a worse fate may befall them. 



The Ikon Furnace, by Rev. John H. Aughey, pp. 300, pub- 
lished by Alfred Martien, is the second e iition of a volume 
which was widely circulated at the time of its first appearance, 
and is well worthy of careful perusal now. The spirit and arts 
of slavery and secession should be known for the instruction of 
succeeding generations. The sufferings and heroism of those 
who, like Mr. Aughey, dared to be loyal in the midst of trea- 
son and rebellion, cannot be too highly esteemed. Mr. Aughey 
is now a pastor in this vicinity, and a member of the Presby- 
tery of Shenango. We hope that this second edition will have 
a large sale. The style is good and the narrative is of thrill- 
ing interest, relating as it does the terrible experiences of one 
living among us. — The rrebyUrian Banner, Pittsburg, Ta. 



The Iron Furnace ; or, Slavery and Secession. By 
Rev. John II. Aughey, a refugee from Mississippi. Phil- 
adelphia : Alfred Martien, 1215 Chestnut St. 
This is a new edition of a work which we formerly noticed 
favorably. When it first appeared, during the war, it was 
widely circulated, and this new edition shows that it is still in 
demand. Times have changed and "the iron furnace" has 
happily perished with the lebellion, still it is well to keep 
these things in remembrance, and Mr. Aughey's thrilling nar- 
rative of personal adventure and suffering at the hands of his 
secession and proslavery persecutors, will be read with un- 
abated interest. It will no doubt be welcomed by the reading 
public. — The United Presbyterian, Pittsburg, Pa. 



By Henry Ward Beecheb: 

I take pleasure in announcing that Rev. .John II. Aughey 
will deliver a lecture in this church (Plymouth church, Brook- 
lyn) on next Wednesday evening. He will repeat the lecture 
recently pronounced by hiui iu Cooper Institute, New York City. 
Mr. Aughey is a Mississippi Unionist who was "faithful found 
among the faithless." His uncompromising courage, heroic 
devotion, unswerving loyalty, and invincible endurance, so full 
of touching pathos, appeal to the higher feelings of every true 
lover of freedom and friend of humanity. Mr. Aughey was 
bound in irons and imprisoned in the dungeon, in the midst of 
the great rebel army at Tupelo, Miss., from which he made his 
escape a few days before the time fixed for Lis death by bang- 
ing. His escape was one of the most remarkable on record. 
Come and hear him. 



From The Christian at Work, Xew York: 

Tupelo, by Rev. John II. Aughey, A.M., author of Spiritual 
Gems of the Ages, etc. This is certainly a remarkable book, 
the interest of which cannot be exaggerated, etc. 



From The Jlid Continent, St. Louis, Mo.: 

This is an enlarged and completed sequel of The Iron fur- 
nace, which was published many years ago. It is a personal 
narrative of the imprisonment and escape of a southern 1 nion- 
ist at the outbreak of the war. and ol his wonderful escapes. 
It is certainly full of thrilling adventure, weil told, and is more 
interesting than a novel. It is a volume of 600 pages, embel- 
lished with a portrait of the author and numerous illustrative 
engravings. 



From The Wilkes-Barre Record, Pa.: 

Rev. John J I. Aughey, A.M., pastor of the Presbyterian 
churches of Mountain Top and Sugar Notch, has recently pub- 
lished a volume entitled Tupelo, in which he narrates h 
perience in the South during the war of the Rebellion. No 
more thrillingly interesting volume has en written. 

The style is Addisonian, and tl 
high rank, as a war classic, 



From The Presbyterian, Philadelphia, Pa.: 

li Tupelo," by Rev. John H. Aughey, M.A, author of the 
"Iron Furnace," etc. Lincoln, Neb., State Journal Co., printers. 
1888. "Tupelo "is, we are informed by the author, an "en- 
larged and completed sequel" of the "Iron Furnace/' a book 
published by Mr. Aughey, after his escape from the secession- 
ists in the first years of the war. It attracted much attention 
at the time, and unveiled some of the fierce and cruel assaults 
made by lawless men upon the few who stood for the Union. 
Mr. Aughey has made additions and corrections, which have 
added to the value of this volume, but the story of his escape 
remains in a large part the same. By some singular error the 
death of Mr. Aughey was announced a few weeks ago. The 
volume before us gives evidence that he is alive, and alive to 
the present as well as to the past. 



From The Presbyterian Journal, Philadelphia, Pa. : 

The Rev. John H. Aughey has given an enlarged and com- 
pleted sequel of "The Iron Furnace," under the title of "Tu- 
pelo. " It is a burning narrative of his sufferings during the 
war. As it appeared originally, it had warm commendations 
from public men. It now makes a volume of 600 pages, well 
printed. In an unexplainable way it was telegraphed all over 
the country a few weeks ago that Mr. Aughey had suddenly 
died. He is still living at Mountain Top, Pa., where he dates 
his preface. He endeavored to find out how the telegraphic 
report originated, but to no avail. The volume is published 
by State Journal Co., Lincoln, Neb. 



1887. 

SPIRITUAL G-EMS 

OF THE AGES. 



REV. JOHN II. AUGHET, 

author of "The Iron Furn ■■ immxtical Guide," "Tupelo, 1 

"In Memob 



"Spieituai. Gems " contains 550 pages Price $2.00. 
Sold on subscription. Liberal terms to agents. 
For terras and territory address Rev. JOHN II. AUGHEY, 
Mountain Top, Luzerne Co., Fa. 



By Rev. W. M. Grimes, I). I). , Pastor 1st Presbyterian Church, 
St< ubenville, Ohio: 
From an examination of the book entitled Spiritual Gems, 
by Lev. John H. Aughey, and from my personal knowlec 
the author, I ran most cordially commend it to all who w ish a 
rare casket of jewels, excellent sayings. These spiritual 
thoughts should be with every one. 

W. M. GRIMES. 



By Rev. E. D. Ledyabd, Pastor 2d Presbyterian Church, Steu- 
ben ville, Ohio: 
Spiritual Gems of the Ages, by Rev. John II. Aughey, is a 
compilation of valuable extracts upon important phases of truth, 

which will be sure to interest and instruct the reader. The 
tone of the book is eminently spiritual and evangelical, and 
cannot fail to do good. 

E. D. LEDTARD. 



By Rev. J. W. WlGHTMAX, D.D., Principal Female Seminary, 
Steuben ville, O., and Taster 3d Presbyterian Church. 
An examination of Spiritual Gems of the Ages convinces me 
that it possesses great value for thoughtful readers Its im- 
portant truths, clearly and tersely expressed by the best minds 
of the race, cannot fail to be inspiring and helpful both to in- 
tellectual and spiritual life. 

J. W. WIGHTMAN. 



By Eugene P. Edwards, Pastor 2d M. E. Church, Steuben- 
ville, Ohio: 
From an examination of its merits, I fully and heartily con- 
cur in the foregoing recommendations of Spiritual Gems of the 
Ages, and speak for it a hearty ■welcome by all lovers of good 
literature. 

EUGENE P. EDWARDS. 



By Rev. C. E. Hewitt, D.D., Pastor 1st Baptist Church, Peoria, 
Elinois: 
I have taken some time to look over the volume entitled 
Spiritual Gems. I find in it many, very many, beautiful 
things — beautiful sentiments beautifully expressed, and in 
beautiful harmony with the teachings of God's Word. May it 
find many readers. 

C. E. HEWITT. 



By Rev. Dan. F. Bradley, Pastor Congregational Church, 
Steubenville, Ohio: 
The book Spiritual Gems of the Ages lies before me. It is 
Avell printed and indexed, and is arranged in convenient topics. 
In it I have found many good and helpful thoughts to encour- 
age right living and afford comfort in hours of discouragement, 
as well as short sermons of warning and reproof. I have no 
doubt that the possession of this book will prove helpful to 
many a soul. 

DAN. F. BRADLEY. 



By Rev. Wm. Wish art, D.D., of the U. P. Church, Monmouth, 
Illinois : 

In reading this book, Spiritual Gems, etc., we have been both 
interested and edified. "We have not lately read any book thai 
combines so much pleasure -with so much profit to the Christian 
reader. In style it is a book of aphorisms, terse sentences, pithy 
sayings, in each of which there is a clear example of the mid- 
turn in parvo,a kind of composition eminently calculated to 
arrest the attention, awaken and stimulate the mind, and stick 
fast in the memory. These proverbial sayings are "as goads 
and nails fastened by Masters of Assemblies." In matter, this 
book is eminently moral and evangelical. Vice is condemned, 
virtue is commended, and many precious doctrines of the < ioa 
pel illustrated and confirmed. It is a book that will be profit- 
able for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness to 
all who read it. We cordially commend it as a book for all, 

but especially for Christian families. 

W.M. WIS11ART. 



By Rev. J. Osmond, P.M., Des Moines Presbytery, Fairfield, 
Iowa: 
The book entitled Spiritual Gems of the Ages, by Rev. John 
H. Aughey, is, I think, rightly named. The selections of which 
it is composed are gems — many of them of the first water, none 
of them dull. The volume is one of those books that may he 
taken up in leisure moments and one or more of its independ- 
ent items read with pleasure and profit, thus furnishing food 
for thought and stimulus to right action when other pursuits 
are resumed. To such as indulge in few books it affords in- 
formation with reference to a great number of distinguished 
writers and authors by giving specimens of their productions. 

It is a good and stimulating book. 

J. OSMOND. 



By Rev. Joseph Buchanan, of the U. P. Church, Steuben- 

ville,0.: 
I have examined the collection of Spiritual Gems, by ReT. 
John II. Aughey, and can freely recommend it to the patron- 



age of any Christian who wishes to enlarge his knowledge and 
spiritual influence. 

JOSEPH BUCHANAN. 



I have examined carefully and with great interest The 
Spiritual Gems of the Ages. I am greatly pleased with it. 
I believe the book to be an admirable one — pithy, of great va- 
riety, and cannot fail to be interesting and profitable to all who 
read it. Every known duty is enforced, and every vice is 
made odious by being presented in its true aspect. The work 
is not sectarian, but it is truly evangelical, and its worth will 
be more highly appreciated as time elapses. All the cardinal 
doctrines of grace are clearly and forcibly presented. The 
reader will find on every page pertinent, pungent, piquant 
pearls of thought. Open the book where you may, sparkling 
brilliants of the first water greet you. The minister of the 
gospel will find it an invaluable aid in the preparation of ser- 
mons. Whatever his subject, he cannot fail to find many 
truths pertinent to it in this volume, and these truths so clearly 
and forcibly presented that any ordinary congregation will at 
once grasp and retain them. The Sabbath-school teacher, the 
parent, the private Christian, will find this volume a valuable 
"aid to devotion, and a spiritual treasury from which to draw 
daily fresh supplies. The winner of souls will be encouraged 
in bis great work, and greatly aided in answering objections, 
and in presenting, enlorcing, and illustrating the truth. May 
it have, as it richly deserves, a large sale aud numerous 
readers. 

REV. JOHN F. BOYD, 

Steubenville, Ohio. 



" Full many a gem of purest ray serene " is garnered in this 
volume. It is the fruit of laborious research during a minis- 
try of Thirty YEARS. The literature of every age, of every 
nation, of every language, of every sect, has contributed its 
quota to the setting of these gems in a crow-n radiant with 
brilliants of the first water. 

This book will bless the home it enters, and the individual 



-who makes it his mentor. It will enrich the understanding 
and purify the heart by the presentation of the most sublime 
truths that ever entered the arcanum of the soul of man. 
There are lessons of deep and abiding o be learned by 

perusing and meditating upon these garnered 
purest, nohhst, and most elaborate thoughts of the ■• 
holiest men that ever blessed the earth with their pr< 
enriched its spiritual literature with t lie winnowed wheat, the 
rich fruitage of their life-long labor and research. 

This volume bears the impress of every diversity of individ- 
ual character. More than three thousand saints, philosopl 
and sages, whose lives have extended through a period ol 
thousand years of the world's history, have contributed, 
his quota, to the formation of this volume. Thus have 
secured variety, spirituality, and the highest order of intellect- 
ual thought and diction. Not a single inferior or common- 
place thought or sentiment has been suffered to enter; and if 
any has surreptitiously found a place, upon discovery it will 
be unceremoniously ejected. It is a book suited to all ages 
and all nations; to all classes of men, and all states of society; 
for all capacities of intellect, and all necessities of the soul. 
It sets forth the most heavenly truths in a manner clear and 
convincing, and makes them comprehensible by all. All ab- 
struse speculation is avoided. The King's highway of holiness 
— the way of salvation — is pointed out as with a beam of 
light, so that the convicted sinner needs not doubt as to what 
he must do to be saved. By the blessing of the Holy Spirit, 
the impenitent reader may be convicted of sin and led to put 
implicit trust in that Savior of whose ability and willingness 
to save he will find in this volume a complete revelation. 
The reader will rise from its perusal with elevated thoughts 
and feelings, with more ardent, love of virtue, with incn 
spiritual information, and with intense desire to serve more 
faithfully as a laborer in his Master's vineyard. This volume 
is unique; it is a desideratum in religious literature, and it 
will doubtless become the vade-mecum of many a Christian. 

The author is a member of the Presbytery of Lackawanna, 
and pastor of the Mountain Top church, near Wilkes-Barr< . 
Luzerne county, Pa. 

Bublington, Des Moines Co., [owa, May 19, 1887. 



By Rev. Alexander Swastey, D.D., Toronto, Ohio: 

The book now offered to the public, Spiritual Gems of the 
Ages, by Rev. John II. Aughey, is one that cannot fail to be 
useful to any and all who carefully read it. It will prove it- 
self especially valuable for those who are very busy, whose mo- 
ments are precious and have not much time to read. Every 
page and almost every sentence is filled with something good. 

ALEXANDER SWANEY. 



By Rev. Thomas V. Milligan, D.D., Pastor Presbyterian 
Church, East Liverpool, Ohio: 
I can cheerfully commend the book herewith submitted for 
your reading. Spiritual Gems, if carefully read, will save you 
buying many books, as it brings to you the cream, and leaves 
the skim-milk for those who have more leisure than you or I 
have. You are safe to buy it and you will be sure to read it, 
and the rest will follow. 

THOMAS V. MILLIGAN. 



A very interesting and instructive book. — L. J. Ewing, 
Cedar Valley, Ohio. 



I know of no better book except the Bible. — PI. Lee, Cross 
Creek Village, Pa. 



From the Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati, Ohio: 

Spiritual Gems of the Ages, by Rev. John H. Aughey, Elm 
Street Frinting Co., pp. 550, price $2.00. This is a beautiful 
collection of gems of thought, eminently spiritual in tone, and 
calculated to enrich the mind that studies them. The selec- 
tions have been gathered during a ministry of thirty years, and 
now, grouped under appropriate titles, and well indexed, will 
be found of great value to ministers and religious teachers. 
The work is sold on subscription. 



Spiritual Gems of the Ages is soiling rapidly. Agents take 
from eight to eighteen orders per day. Agents find no fault 
with the terms given. For term-; and territory please address 
REV. JOHN 1[. AUGHEY, 

Mountain Top, Luzerne Co., Pa. 

Or, Rev. J. F. Boyd, Steuben ville, O.; W. J). Paden, Cam- 
eron, Texas; Dr. J. W. Ferguson, Congress, ; Dr. .1. ('. .Mc- 
Afee, Dallas, W. Va. ; Dr. T. G. Paden, Iuka, Miss ; M. M. 
DeLashmet, Princeton^ Ind.; Rev. J. P. Brengle, Corydon, 
Iowa; IsaacS. Suydam, San Jacinto, Cal.; Rev. R. L. Neely, 
Denmark, Tenn.; Rev. W. J. McKay, Mayesville, S. C; R. II 
Pepper, Seaton, 111.; P. W. Petrie, Farmington, 111.; E. B. 
Holden, Bushnell 111. ; David Stetler, Sugar Notch, Pa. 




TUPELO-TUPELO-TUPELO. 



For Terms and Territory: 

Those residing east of the Mississippi River 
desiring agencies, will address Rev. John H. 
Aughey, Mountain Top, Luzerne Co., Pa. 

Those residing west of the Mississippi River 
will address W. D. Hart, Esq., Minden, Kearney 
Co., Nebr. 

If there has been no agent appointed for your 
territory, send your address, enclosing two dollars, 
to Rev. John H. Aughey, Mountain Top, Pa., 
and the book will be sent you at once by mail or 
express, as you direct. 



